Elbit reveals how laser technology shields airliners from heat-seeking missiles

Shoulder-fired missiles, known as MANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems), began proliferating heavily after the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, when Libyan weapons storage centers were raided.

By Yaakov Lappin, JNS

As national attention in Israel remains focused on aviation security, Elbit Systems’ C-MUSIC defends all Israeli commercial airliners, as well as civilian aircraft around the world, from the widening threat of shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles.

The system, installed on the aircraft, detects an incoming missile’s infrared signature and fires a jamming laser that disrupts its seeker head, causing it to miss its target, an Elbit representative told JNS.

The C-Music (Commercial Multi-spectral Infrared Countermeasure) is part of a family of DIRCM (Directed Infrared Counter-Measures) developed by the Israeli defense company.

“The system is mounted on the helicopter or the aircraft, on the airborne platform, and it identifies, with the help of optical sensors, a missile approaching the platform, a heat-guided missile. We’re, of course, only talking about heat-guided missiles,” the representative said.

“The moment it identifies it, it aims, very precisely, a laser beam at it that disrupts the missile’s seeker head, and the missile essentially falls,” the representative said.

Unlike other laser systems, C-Music’s laser does not burn a hole through the missile but disrupts the missile’s heat sensor.

The detection array consists of four sensors mounted on the aircraft that provide 360-degree coverage, the source explained.

“They stare passively all the time until they see a flash they recognize as a flash from a missile approaching the aircraft. They transfer the information from that system, which we call the detection system, to the jammer, which carries out the laser firing,” the representative said, describing the sensors as “very sensitive optical sensors, very high resolution,” developed and manufactured entirely by Elbit.

The system performs identically regardless of the hour, day, or night.

“Since the missile is a heat-guided missile and the response to it comes in the infrared spectrum, it’s also called DIRCM, directed infrared countermeasure, and therefore there is no difference between day and night for the system,” the representative said.

“Just as the missile that was fired chases the heat of the aircraft’s engine, that’s how we confront the missile too, in terms of the infrared aspects, so there is no day or night effect,” the source stated.

“C-MUSIC is what we call the system that is certified for civil and commercial aviation.”

Development of the system goes back over two decades. Elbit began development following the 2002 Mombasa terror attack, in which assailants fired two heat-seeking missiles at an Israeli Arkia charter jet taking off in Kenya; both missiles missed. Ten years later, the first systems hit the market.

Demand for the system has grown steadily and accelerated further in recent years, according to the source.

“Certainly since the war in Ukraine in 2022, and afterward, of course, following the war in the Middle East and in the Gulf as well, we’re seeing growing demand around the whole world, in Europe and on other continents too,” he said, adding that Elbit is “setting up additional production lines” to keep pace, without disclosing customers beyond what has already been made public.

Shoulder-fired missiles, known as MANPADS (man-portable air-defense systems), began proliferating heavily after the fall of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, when Libyan weapons storage centers were raided.

After that, the collapse of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and the decline of Al Qaeda, the proliferation of such weapons continued, apparently both of missiles and of people trained to use them, who scattered around the world, the representative said.

“The fact that demand for my systems keeps growing, and it’s growing around the whole world, not just in Europe or just in Asia or just in Africa, but really across the whole world… I assume the relevant intelligence bodies around the world know these things are really happening,” the representative said.

He added that the simplicity of using the missile launchers is part of the danger.

“The advantage of these missiles: One, they’re small; you can put them in a car trunk and move them from place to place, and two, you really don’t need much skill. You can see in a lot of sources that someone just fires the missile toward the plane or helicopter and simply turns around and runs; he doesn’t need to guide the missile; the missile just chases the heat on its own. So yes, unfortunately, these systems are very easy to operate,” the representative said.

He confirmed the C-Music system operates continuously, including during the takeoff and landing phases of civilian aircraft.

Elbit’s own product materials describe C-MUSIC as “a Civil Aviation Authority-certified, laser-based, fully automatic, and autonomous system that provides large jet aircraft with comprehensive protection against advanced heat-seeking ground-to-air missiles,” contained in a single fuselage-mounted pod.

The company states the Government of Israel “has selected the system to protect all Israeli commercial airliners” and is certified and installed on the Boeing 777, 747, 737, 757, and 767 and the Airbus A330 and A320.

El Al adopted the system in November 2014 under the Israeli government’s “Sky Shield” program, through which the Israeli Transportation Ministry selected C-MUSIC to protect the airline’s entire fleet, Airways Magazine reported in April 2023.

El Al, Arkia, and Israir have all flown aircraft equipped with such anti-missile pods, roughly 2.7 meters long and mounted beneath the rear fuselage, for about two decades, according to Italian aviation outlet The Flight Club reported in March 2025.

The renewed public attention on security for Israel-bound flights follows the Sept. 30, 2026, Dubai Flight 1073 incident, in which an Omani co-pilot attacked the captain with a crash ax and attempted to seize the aircraft in order to crash it into Ben Gurion Airport before being stopped by the injured pilot and Israeli passengers.