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Northrop to Sell Laser Shield Bubble for Airports

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the charge-the-ion-cannon dept.

NeoPrime writes "CNN Money web site has a story about Northrop Grumman forecasting development of a laser shield 'bubble' for airports and other installations in the United States within 18 months. The system will be called Skyguard — a joint venture with Israel and the U.S. Army. It will have the capability to generate a shield five kilometers in radius."

2 of 648 comments (clear)

  1. A license to print money... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Number of US airports (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fiel ds/2053.html): 14,893
    Major US airports (http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp): Approx. 40
    US airports with international flights (http://aerospace.web.mtsu.edu/usinternational.htm ): At least 72

    Minimum likely cost using low-ball $25 million per airport figure and only major airports: US$1 billion
    Mid-range likely cost using higher $30 million per airport figure, and all international airports in the US: US$2.16 billion
    Realistic projection, expecting a 50% cost overrun, and ~100 airports: US$4.5 billion
    Potential maximum even if cost per airport is reduced to 1/10th the lowest projection, and only 1 in 4 US airports is protected: US$9.3 billion.

    All this just to stop something that's never happened on US soil, and AFAIK never successfully happened elsewhere (terrorists using a missile to shoot down a commercial passenger aircraft). Who said terrorism was bad? It sure as heck is good business if you're Northrop...

  2. Re:Protect the Airports? by dilbert+researcher · · Score: 5, Informative

    The main reason behind deploying the shields at airports is, to prevent terrorists from using hand-held rocket launchers. These rocket launchers can be used to destroy planes that are at a low altitude. Low altitude planes are easily sighted around airports when they are about to land or take-off. Hence domestic airports are a big market for these systems.