Safer skies: El Al’s anti-missile defense system

Every commercial aircraft in El Al’s fleet is equipped with advanced missile defense technology.

By World Israel News Staff

As an Iranian attack on Israel looms, dozens of international airlines have cancelled their flights to Israel. However, Israel’s national carrier, El Al, has continued flying as usual.

So why is El Al confident that it can operate safely, despite the increasing risk of missile, rocket, and drone attacks by Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah?

The reason is likely because all El Al planes are equipped with state-of-the-art missile defense technology.

The first airline in the world to roll out this technology for every commercial aircraft in its fleet, El Al first began using the anti-missile system in 2004.

Called Flight Guard, the defense system was originally developed by the Israeli Air Force. While all the details about the technology are not available to the public, the airline has revealed that the system is predicated upon the detection of missiles fired within in an aircraft’s vicinity.

In the event that missiles are detected, the plane automatically fires flares, which serve to deflect projectiles from their intended targets.

Due to concerns that Flight Guard was a fire hazard, El Al updated its anti-missile system to a newer technology, called C-MUSIC, in 2014.

The system “provides powerful Directed Infra-Red Counter Measure (DIRCM) protection against MANPADS for large jet aircraft, built on years of proven experience in the military environment,” according to Elbit, the manufacturer and developer of C-MUSIC.

The technology has “been installed on a wide variety of commercial aircraft, as well as aircraft transporting heads of state and VIPs. C-MUSIC is 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,” Elbit says on its website.

C-MUSIC provides advanced protection from Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS), which are surface-to-air missiles launched from the ground specifically designed to target planes.

Rather than firing flares, C-MUSIC emits a laser beam at projectiles’ sensors. The heat from the laser causes the projectile to divert from its path, protecting the aircraft.

Notably, the C-MUSIC system is entirely automated, with a response time of less than two seconds and requiring zero intervention from the pilot.