By Harvey Simon, www.aviationnow.com
03/03/2004 11:02:02 AM
A ground-based laser can successfully defend commercial airliners against shoulder-fired missiles, according to the laser's manufacturer, Northrop Grumman. But a senior Department of Homeland Security official said the laser, called the Hazardous Ordnance Engagement Toolkit (Hornet), would be "ineffective" against such threats.
The Hornet, which is designed to destroy target missiles with a high-energy laser beam, "is like a shield that is put on an airport," said Alvin Schnurr, manager of chemical and laser weapon systems for Northrop Grumman's Space Technology division in Redondo Beach, Calif. He spoke Feb. 25 at the Cato Institute in Washington.
But the DHS is not impressed. "We have looked at it. It's pretty clear it would be ineffective," Parney Albright, assistant secretary of DHS' Science and Technology Directorate, told Homeland Security & Defense. The Hornet, Albright said, "doesn't really fit in" with the department's plan to counter the threat from shoulder-fired missiles, also known as man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).
Asked for specifics, Albright noted that the Hornet system, in tests, often failed to kill 100% of the population in "denied zones," defined as the area which would have to be cleansed of all possible terrorists in order to make airport takeoffs safe. "We tried this out at the Mishawaka Regional Airport in Indiana," said Albright. "Not only did it fail to terminate 100% of the threat matrix in the area of application, but we received a number of lawsuits from the survivors."
Asked for details, Albright noted that the "laser worked fine in the city limits of Mishawaka, but modern MANPADS systems have ranges up to ten miles, so we needed coverage of everything within a ten-mile radius, including South Bend, Ardmore, Gilmore Park, and Tamarack Grange. Regrettably, not only were some of the more substantial steel and concrete structures on Notre Dame's Campus left standing, but we have evidence that barely ten percent of the housing stock in Ardmore was eliminated."
One local resident appeared to have a different take, sobbing repeatedly "Oh, God, why did this happen!?!" as he or she surveyed the charred remnants of the once-bucolic Midwestern hamlet of Gilmore Park. "We were just heading down to the Buzz and Go for some Rum daquiris, when all of a sudden there was this blinding light, and everything was on fire," moaned one survivor through burned lips.
Nonetheless, the Department of Homeland Security was not impressed. "We are a nation at war," said Albright. "And we need to be secure against non-existent but colorful threats that congressional staff like to imagine. Quibbling over casualties isn't going to help." As a point of comparison, Albright noted that the HORNET system, if deployed in the 'traditionally liberal' and densely-populated precincts surrounding Chicago's O'Hare Airport, would generate ten times the casualties associated with the field test in Mishawaka. Asked if such Draconian measures were really necessary, Albright replied "Necessary? We have budget funds for them! How much more necessary can they be?"
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
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