British armed forces are patrolling the perimeter of Heathrow Airport near London, following what officials described as 鈥渋ncreased intelligence chatter鈥� between terrorist suspects linked to Al-Qaeda.
The presence of more than 450 soldiers in armoured vehicles and 1300 police at one of the world鈥檚 busiest airports has led to widespread speculation that terrorists might attempt to shoot down a passenger jet using a shoulder-launched rocket.
In November 2002, a rocket attack of this type on an Israeli airliner only narrowly missed its target as the plane took off from Mombassa Airport in Kenya. Officials have also speculated that an attack could be timed to coincide with the five-day Muslim festival of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, which began on Monday.
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However, some experts fear the increased patrols are unlikely to foil any attempted attack. Jim O鈥橦alloran, editor of Jane鈥檚 Land-Based Air Defence, says countermeasures fitted to airplanes may be the only protection against terrorists armed with such crude yet effective weapons.
One Israeli company, Rafael, began offering a type of infrared jamming system to commercial airlines in February.
Quick and simple
O鈥橦alloran says ground patrols would have trouble catching attackers armed with shoulder-mounted rockets at an airport of this size. The airport鈥檚 four terminals cover 12 square kilometres and its perimeter stretches to open public spaces such as Windsor Great Park.
The Mombassa attack involved a shoulder-mounted Russian Strela-2. Though outmoded, this weapon is quick and simple to use, O鈥橦alloran says. 鈥淚n less than 30 seconds, the rocket is on its way and they鈥檝e gone,鈥� O鈥橦alloran told New Scientist.
The Strela-2 has a range of up to 5.5 kilometres and automatically locks onto a heat-emitting target, such as a jet engine. Its range means it could be successfully fired a point well away from the airport.
Off course
O鈥橦alloran believes the perceived risk of such an attack is now so great that commercial airlines will soon start to fit military countermeasures to aircraft to foil rocket attacks.
Specifically, he believes systems designed to jam a rocket鈥檚 homing system will be adopted. These automatically detect a missile鈥檚 launch and emit energy to throw a rocket鈥檚 infrared sensor off course.
O鈥橦alloran says the fear of loosing an aircraft filled with passengers will outweigh the substantial cost of fitting such systems to airplanes. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the only thing they can do, and they鈥檝e got to do it,鈥� he says.
A more expensive and less proven alternative would be a land-based laser defence system. US and Israeli forces have successfully tested a high-intensity laser system designed to detect and destroy missiles, and even artillery fire.