Air Force One Can Foil Missile Atttack
In-Depth Coverage By Vernon Loeb
How safe is Air Force One?
The exact defensive countermeasures on Air Force One are classified. But the presidential plane is equipped with flares designed to confuse the infrared seekers that guide surface-to-air missiles to sources of heat -- usually engines -- on aircraft, according to Loren B. Thompson, a defense analyst and Pentagon consultant at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington think tank.
"Air Force One has a wide array of countermeasure capabilities for foiling surface-to-air missiles, some of which have never been disclosed to the public," Thompson said. "It is the closest thing we have to an invulnerable aircraft in terms of dealing with surface-to-air threats."
In terms of sophisticated antimissile systems aboard Air Force One, Thompson and John E. Pike, head of GlobalSecurity.org, a military and intelligence think tank in Alexandria, said it is reasonable to assume the plane is equipped with a new laser countermeasure being installed on C-17 military transports, the Air Force's primary cargo hauler in and out of Baghdad and other high-threat airports in Iraq.
The new technology, the Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) system manufactured by Northrop Grumman Corp., employs sensors that detect an incoming heat-seeking missile. Once an onboard computer confirms that the sensor has detected an incoming missile, as opposed to some other heat-emitting aircraft, a laser mounted inside a swiveling turret fires at the missile's seeker and turns it off course.
