Fri, Apr 30, 2004
Some In Congress Want To Move Faster
Get on with it, already. That seems
to be the message from Florida Congressman John Mica's House
Aviation Subcommittee to the FAA about developing anti-missile
systems for civilian aircraft.
"Other nations are going faster with their studies," said James
Shilling, spokesman for the Coalition of Airline Pilots
Association. "Their systems are very much on a par with our
systems. Let's not study and look and ponder so six years down the
road somebody shoots something."
Several members of the House subcommittee appeared to agree.
Mica himself noticed that Israel is already testing IAI's system
for in-flight missile defense on El Al aircraft. If successful,
installation of the systems could begin this year.
But Mica also sounded a realistic note, saying, "The cost and
complication associated with installing these systems on commercial
aircraft could be staggering and also time-consuming. The United
States must also move forward with other domestic and international
efforts."
The measure approved by the
subcommittee Thursday calls for an FAA report in one year,
detailing efforts to curb the shoulder-fired missile threat at
airports around the country.
But anti-terror officials in Washington, along with their
counterparts at big-time think tanks, don't think the worst threat
is here in the US. Instead, they point to foreign airports as a
more likely target for terrorists armed with SAMs.
"We remain most concerned about this threat overseas," said
Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse. "We do not have
threat information that indicates al-Qaeda is planning an attack at
a specific location in the United States."
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