On the Design of a System for Airport Protection against Terrorist Attacks Using MANPADs

The system developed and presented in this article was design and laboratory tested with good results. However, if the system is implemented the results would be visible in time, since already, there it is a significant number of MANPADs lost and available to terrorist forces. Although the idea of securing the airports was born years ago, the practical development and implementation was possible only in the last period of time when the technology has become capable and safe to be used in special applications. The system proposed consists in a network of antennas distributed in the area where possible attacks could be conducted and a system based on two electronic devices to be implemented in the grip stock and launching tube of the MANPADs. The devices will be activated only when the MANPAD arrives in the proximity of airports and/or civil airplanes. Due to the unlimited possibilities of encoding the signals and protecting the devices identity there are no real possibilities for a terrorist organization to disable such mechanism and consequently any access of a person equipped with a MANPAD will be detected and the most important the launching sequence would be interrupted.