DHS robotic airport missile-patrol plan to be shelved It appears that plans for patrolling robotic laser missile-muddler guardian aircraft above US airports have been shelved. The idea has been assessed as too expensive to be practical. Under the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "Project Chloe", the unmanned aeroplanes would have been equipped to detect any possible …
"This means that three Project Chloe patrollers at 65,000 feet would be needed to cover each airport, not one as the DHS had thought."
erm, why? this conclusion must be based on some assesssment of sensor coverage & resolution traded against response time per Chloe-kite that the article does not include. Of course, if the NorGrumm original report didn't include such analysis, then they merely didn't want to make the thing 'cos DHS pay out less than DoD (probably)
Can't help thinking that fitting commercial airliners with chaff and flares (proven technology & so much cheaper) is a sensible option (given, of course that the MANPADS threat on <bold> mainland US of A </bold> is actually credible)
Of course fitting flare dispensers to commercial aircraft means anyone with the right type of laser pointer*, be it terrorist or numpty, can generate a rather impressive fireworks display, and probably set light to the houses of the poor sods living right under the approach path.
* Many automatic flare dispensers have a laser warning receiver to detect laser range finders / designators used by IR seeking MANPADs.
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