The Manpads Threat Resurfaces

The world’s airlines continue to face numerous, well-documented challenges arising from the volatile global economic and political environment. Thus, we continually see company restructuring, fleet and route rationalisation, increased code-sharing, staff cutbacks, and so on.

Another challenge of an entirely different hue that has largely been swept under the carpet for the past five years may well rear its very ugly head in the near-future. And that is the threat of the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles known as man-portable air defence systems (Manpads). The catalyst for the reappearance of this danger has been the revolutionary war in Libya. There are reports that following the disintegration of the Gaddafi regime, hundreds of Manpads may have been looted from the former dictator’s armouries. This should be a matter for serious concern.
Manpads are relatively small, simple, heat-seeking missiles designed to shoot-down aircraft. They are easy to transport, prepare, aim and fire. The Russian-built SA-7 and SA-14 Manpads, for example, are light enough for one or two people to carry and fire, and both missiles take less than a minute to assemble, aim and launch.

A Manpad typically has a range of five kilometres, a ceiling of 4000 metres, and a speed around mach 2.0. When combined with the slow climb and descent rates of airliners, those parameters establish a threat envelope around airports about 80 kilometres long, 10 kilometres wide and 4000 metres high. At a major hub, a dozen or more wide-bodied jets might be inside that envelope at any one time. The difficulty of detecting and then neutralising a Manpads threat within the heavily urbanised areas that surround many airports is self-evident.