FedEx, one of the world’s largest commercial package carriers, has asked the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for permission to install a laser based missile defense systems. It wants to protects its Airbus A321-200 airplanes from man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). The FAA is reviewing this request.
On Friday, the FAA said that it was reviewing the proposal sent by FedEx in 2019. It would be necessary to give special approval to FedEx as it is a private, commercial, cargo company. So far, this is the first time that there has been such a proposal. Cargo planes are not designed to carry and shoot missiles, as of now.
The FAA said it is considering the proposal and is also looking at several conditions that would have to be put in place as well as safety measures to prevent accidents to crew on ground and aboard the flights. It will also ask the public to comment on the approval of installation of such missile systems.
The FAA documents stated that civilian aircrafts had been “fired upon by man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).” It also stated that this led to many companies designing and adapting systems including a “laser-based missile-system” to protect civilian aircraft from “heat-seeking missiles.”
It also explained the missile defense system that FedEx was proposing to add in its cargo planes. It described the system as one that directed infrared laser energy towards an incoming missile. This energy would interrupt the tracking of the aircraft’s heat by a MANPAD.
Missile tracking systems have been used by some civilian aircrafts as there have been shoot downs of civilian flights due to MANPADS. Three major incidents include the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 725 from Tehran to Kyiv, that was shot at in Iran, a Malaysian Airlines passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in 2014 when it was flying over eastern Ukraine and a 2003 DHL cargo jet that was hit in Bagdad in 2013 have been reported.
