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FedEx Asks Permission to Install Anti-Missile Lasers on Its Cargo Jet:
FedEx has asked the US Federal Aviation Administration if it could install anti-missile lasers on cargo jets, according to a request filed earlier this month. The FAA request is set to be published on the public register next week.
Heat-seeking missiles detect and target heat from cargo jet engines, and because these planes are less maneuverable that a fighter jet, they're hard to shake off. Gizmodo reports that anti-missile lasers act like a distraction, shining an infrared laser directly at the missile to disrupt its ability to track a heat signature.
Although it may seem out of left field, supply chain issues have been causing food and product shortages since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Last year, hackers even deployed ransomware attacks on a major agricultural services provider. With those cyberpunk logistics challenges in mind, FedEx's application makes a little more sense.
"In recent years, in several incidents abroad, civilian aircraft were fired upon by man-portable air defense systems," the application letter reads.
[...] When FedEx first tested similar equipment back in 2008, CBS reported the lasers were eye-safe. In addition, Gizmodo reports that the current application includes new features, reporting and important safety information for airline crew. The lasers really shouldn't pose a problem to civilians on the ground, then, and it makes us wonder — should all passenger planes have this tech?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @02:24AM (8 children)
the last time a jet was shot down over some place that wasn't a 3rd world shithole was when?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @03:09AM (1 child)
Well, Sleepy Joe is intent on turning the US into a 3rd world shithole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @10:14PM
Treasonous Trump beat him to it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @05:39AM (5 children)
I believe that was MH17 [wikipedia.org] in 2014.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Wednesday January 19 2022, @07:51AM (4 children)
There's a whole list [wikipedia.org] of shot down planes, currently the last were in 2020, depending on your definition of 3rd world shithole.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @10:27AM (2 children)
1947 Roswell, New Mexico is notoriously absent.
Surely it should be in the public record by now. Any of the conspirators are well into their 90s by now.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Wednesday January 19 2022, @11:42AM (1 child)
The question was about passenger planes. We don't know if civilians were shot down in Roswell.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @01:30PM
Roswell was most likely an alien tourist bus on a cruise excursion, so I think it should count as a passenger flight.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @02:37PM
I'll grant that Iran isn't 3rd world, so Flight 752 qualifies.