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Photo: El Al Israel Airlines
Safer skies

Security cabinet approves plan to fortify civilian airplanes

Cabinet green lights development of new anti-missile technology for civilian aircraft; Israel to become first country in the world to carry such system

The political-security cabinet approved Wednesday the development of new anti-missile technology, meant to shield Israeli passenger planes from missile attacks. Israel is the first country in the world to fortify its civilian aircraft against such attacks.

 

According to Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz's suggestion, the funds needed to fortify civilian aircraft under currently available technology are to be immediately allocated to his office; the development of the new, advanced, technology is scheduled to begin in 2008.

 

The cabinet also discussed the ways to make Israel's sky safer. The ministers were presented with the "positive ID" system, meant to ensure that any aircraft entering Israeli airspace would be identified immediately, therefore reducing the chances of an unidentified, possibly hostile, aircraft breaching Israeli airspace.

 

The Israeli Aviation Authority also plans to launch a new detection system within a few weeks, meant to locate vehicles on the ground that might find their way into Ben Gurion International Airport.

 

The new system is primarily made to locate unauthorized vehicles and aircraft on the airport's runways, alerting the air traffic control tower of their whereabouts.

 

Eli Senyor contribute to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 10.10.07, 13:41
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