One of Israel’s greatest defense concerns is how to combat shoulder-launched missiles aimed towards commercial airliners. Israel’s Ministry of Defense recently announced the development of SkyShield, a laser defense system developed by Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems.

The SkyShield system has been in development for almost a decade. After undergoing extensive testing, SkyShield has been certified by the Ministry of Defense to combat the threat of man-portable surface-to-air missile systems (MANPADS) by combining disruption and laser detection technologies.

Israel Air Force Brig. Gen. Eitan Eshel, director of research and development at Israel’s Defense Ministry, said, “ShyShield has been validated under the most complex and sophisticated testing conditions ever conducted in Israel and is now ready to protect Israel airlines.”

The commercial version of SkyShield, called the Multi-Special Infrared Countermeasure device (C-MUSIC), will be used on commercial aircraft. C-MUSIC is mounted on an aircraft’s belly. Integrating laser technology with thermal cameras, C-MUSIC can quickly detect incoming missiles and deflect them by jamming.

Using infrared sensors, C-MUSIC fires a laser that disturbs the navigation system of the missile and sends it off course away from the aircraft. When the camera detects an incoming projectile, the plane is automatically rotated so that the belly faces the approaching weapon.

The development of SkyShield was ordered in 2002 by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Terrorists in Mombasa, Kenya fired two surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli charter plane shortly after it took off. The missiles did not hit their target, some 250 passengers. However, Sharon foresaw a need to commercial airlines to defend themselves against terrorist threats.

C-MUSIC will first be implemented on all El-Al airliners. However, Elbit has confirmed that several countries around the world have already contracted the defense company to implement the system other airlines.