BIRD Aerosystems has won a contract for the installation of the AeroShield POD on a number of Airbus 320 Type aircraft Under this contract, the company will install the AeroShield POD with the AMPS-MV system on aircraft of a governmental customer in Europe. Under the contract, the company will provide installation design, integration testing and qualification for the system. This contract follows a successful program of the AeroShield POD with a similar configuration on Boeing 737 type aircraft.
The Aeroshield pod is an all-in-one, integrated Man Portable Anti-Aircraft Missile Systems (MANPADS) threat detection and countermeasure solution that complies with EASA/FAA civil aviation regulation procedures. The system enables the installation of Bird’s Airborne Missile Protection Systems (AMPS) on VIP and commercial aircraft with minimal disruption to operations. the AeroShield POD comprises BIRD’s AMPS system which includes five Missile Launch Detection Sensors (MILDS), one Missile Approach Confirmation Sensor (MACS), Flare Dispensers and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). The pod can be transferred between different aircraft.
Bird Aerosystems’ patented MACS sensor performs unique confirmation of suspected incoming missile threats detected by the main electro-optical passive sensors, and practically eliminates any false alarms. Upon receiving a pre-alarm warning from the electro-optical sensors, MACS slews to the direction of the incoming threat and verifies the threat’s validity. Concurrently, MACS also collects relevant information on the target (velocity and distance) and calculates its time-to-
impact, enabling the most effective countermeasure response to the incoming missile. This validation process between the electro-optical sensors and the MACS provides the most effective filtering for all nature and man-made known types of
false alarms that are usually detected by electro-optical sensors. MACS ensures that only real missiles will be declared by the system and reacted upon.
