Proposed System Not Reliable Past 300-400 Hours

The threat of a shoulder-fired missile bringing down a commercial aircraft in the US is considered real... but it could be 20 years or more before every US passenger aircraft is equipped with a system to protect it from such an attack. That is the assessment found in a report obtained by the Associated Press Monday.

The report states that for three years, the Department of Homeland Security has been looking for some sort of solution to the problem of a pop-up missile threat against commercial aircraft. The research alone has cost upwards of $100 million.

Working with Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, the DHS did come up with a working prototype. But now comes word that it breaks down after every 300 or 400 hours of use. That, says DHS, makes it impractical for widescale implementation.

"The prototype units are capable of partially meeting the Department of Homeland Security performance requirements," the report states.

A Homeland Security spokesman says it'll be at least another 18-months before a revised system can be tested to see if it's effective and more reliable. DHS is also spending $10 million to test other systems.

Members of Congress say they're afraid it'll take the shoot-down of a domestic airliner to bring this issue to the front burner... and they wonder how many lives will be sacrificed in the process.

As one analyst puts it... any bonehead with $5,000 dollars can buy a shoulder-fired missile and bring down a multi-million dollar airliner. In fact, it wasn't that long ago... two years... that the FBI arrested two men in Albany, NY as they tried to do just that.

FMI: www.dhs.gov