¶ … system of MANPAD mitigation and an outlook of what it ought to be today? The United States secretary of states, Colin Powell, addressing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation round-table, gave a warning that the most dangerous menace to aviation safety is the man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). MANPADS are quite easy to use and are easily accessible in the black market. It, however, poses an urgent threat to both civilian and military aircrafts (Liams, n.d). Since the late 50s, when the American Redeye was developed, several hundreds of thousands of these MANPADS have been produced around the world. The most popular and most numerous are the Russian (SA-7 and SA-14), Igla (SA-16 and SA-18) as well as the United States produced FIM-92 Stinger.

Since the September 11 terror attacks, the obvious menace terrorism poses to commercial aviation became the focus of great attention. The risk of shoulder-fired missile attacks on Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) has become the latest menace, though this is not new. Globally, the number of MANPADS today is estimated at about 700,000. A portion of these missiles and weapons can be easily sourced in large quantities in the black markets. The actual number of MANPADS being used by terror groups is not known, as this number can vary greatly, depending on the source, but it is believed that there are more than 27 of such groups in places like Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and South America. The fact that MANPADS are easily obtainable, readily available, easily concealable and very portable, all make them very appealing weapons in the hands of these terror groups (Liams, n.d). Up till date, both the Department of state and the Department of defense, as well as the Legislature and the Executive arm of the government have all made policies to help secure the national strategy objectives with regards to the threat from MANPADS. Tangential to these policies or spawned to them, were several thorough researches that have made spirited attempts to define this threat and outline it and make substantive statistics available for the formulation of policies in the future.

The results that come from these researches, which are daunting in the way in which they indicate the possibility of probable consequences of attacks from MANPAD, has brought about a renewed interest and impetus for a developing strategic solution.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the Department of Defense, in conjunction with the WRA office and the Department of State are also focusing on the destruction of illegal storage of MANPADS.

The DTRA and the Department of States (DOS) work with the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Regional Combatant Command, and the Joint Staff in carrying out the planning and execution of evaluation projects in nations that ask for Small Arms / Light Weapons (SA/LW) with very little cost to the host nation, and sometimes no cost at all (Liams, n.d).

The combination of DOD and DOS agencies in such projects is the right example of the plan of the national policies to help organize and balance abilities across a developing layered defense. It also helps indicate how well the objectives of such national policies are being supported by proper means and ways at the top levels of the department. The hard work of the Department of Defense is quite essential to the United States counter propagation program.

What Current State Should Be

The options for addressing the trend of MANPADS can be grouped into three categories: vulnerability reduction, susceptibility reduction, and non-proliferation. Susceptibility reduction involves certain measures intended for the prevention of MANPADS from striking an aircraft.

Vulnerability reduction pays attention to making aircraft survivability better in the instances of a MANPADS strike (Federation of American Scientists: Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS) proliferation, n.d). Non-proliferation on its part is aimed at thwarting the acquisition of the use of MANPADS by challenging end-users (e.g. terrorists and criminal organizations). In each category, the measures are not mutually exclusive, which means, using only one cannot remove the danger of MANPADS to all civilian aircrafts. However, harmonized strategy that includes measures from the three different categories can reduce the possibility of a successful attack.

The strategy should look like this (Federation of American Scientists: Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS) proliferation):

Patrolling the areas around the airports could possibly help the detection and prevention of MANPADS attacks. However, the equipment and personnel required to adequately patrol the whole 450 primary airports would be quite expensive. And, the vulnerability reduction requires the design and solidification of the aircraft as a way of increasing your chances of survival in cases of any successful...

The agreement does not encourage MANPADS transfers to any other user other than state, and to any government that has expressed unwillingness or inability to defend against stealing, misuse, loss, or diverting the MANPADS themselves, or any related technical details (Federation of American Scientists: Man-Portable Air Defense System (MANPADS) Proliferation, n.d). It equally identifies a lot of safety techniques that any importing government should adopt, which includes storing the missile and the firing mechanism in two separate locations, taking inventories of imported MANPADS monthly, and re-exporting all imported systems only after prior consent have been received from the importing government. When all these elements are combined together, they make the right MANPADS mitigation system.
The United States policy still lacks the overarching or unifying document required to tie the ends or objectives recognized in national strategy, to the developing policy that is now rapidly developing. In the Congress approved H.R. 4056 of 2004, the CAMDA-Commercial Aviation MANPADS Defense Act bill, was signed into law towards the end of the year. This was the bill that gave rise to the very first end-to-end policy with regards to the MANPADS menace. Initially, it was drafted in 2004, and by the middle of the year, subjected to a more detailed analysis known as Report to Congress. This report gave a validation of the assumptions and recommendations and even went ahead to create a cost estimate.

Planning the Future Airport

Security measures have already been taken as a way of improving the security around the airport as regards the MANPADS menace. The easiest and most effective method of ensuring terrorists do not bomb or hijack any planes is to make sure they do not board the planes in the first place.

The United States airports have already been equipped with Explosive Trace Detection Devices, which have the ability to scan the hands of every passenger for residues from explosives, and contentious Imaging scanners that let the security personnel peep into the clothing of every passenger in search of hidden explosives or weapons (Kiger, 2011). They recently upgraded the software to reveal only the outline of a passenger's body to the scanners. To thwart attacks on board aircrafts, experts have worked tirelessly to develop other defense lines. According to the U.S. Congressional testimony of 2002, government researching agencies are considering the probability of getting their air marshals equipped with non-dangerous dazzlers -- a laser gun that has the ability to temporarily disorganize or blind any attacker using a pulsating light. Such weapons would enable air marshals, even when they have been outnumbered, to confront any attacker and disable hijackers without putting the other passengers in any kind of danger. However, a big question normally pops up here; building systems into some new designs and modifying existing systems, which one would be easier?

At the end, the easier route seems to be the modification of an already existing system. The S & T Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security carried out a very competitive yet multiple phase attempt to create counter techniques to all shoulder-launched missiles that may possibly be employed by any terrorist groups or hostile forces against the commercial aircrafts (Counter-Man Portable Air Defense Systems (C-MANPADS, n.d). This S & T program, often referred to as Counter-MAN Portable Air Defense Systems, was founded in 2003, with the aim of identifying candidate technologies that are already in existence, which could result in more affordable and effective solutions for the commercial aircrafts.

DHS S & T, in September 2003, made a solicitation available, which announced a program designed to address the imminent menace MANPADS pose. This solicitation is the very first step in the two-phase system development and demonstration program of the Department for anti-missile devices for all commercial aircraft. The first phase will present the analysis of the economic, production and maintenance issues required to lend support to a system that will be most efficient in the business aviation setting. The second phase will involve developing the prototypes…