Word: planes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Could the President's plane be shot down? Military experts say the chances of a guerrilla group mounting a successful air attack on Air Force One are extremely small. Although the exact nature of the plane's defenses is top secret, they are known to be formidable. Not only can the President's Boeing 707 be protected by a full complement of military fighter jets but the plane is also loaded with sophisticated electronic safeguards...
...most serious threat comes from surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) launched either just before the President's plane lands or just after it takes off. Although the Colombian drug cartels have apparently never used such weapons before -- and there is still no hard evidence that they have acquired them -- there are certainly plenty of SAMs, primarily U.S.-made Stingers and Soviet-built SA-7 Grails, available through illegal channels. Both are portable, shoulder-mounted rockets that use tiny infrared sensors to home in on the heat generated by a jet engine...
...standard defense against a heat-seeking missile is to divert it with another heat source, typically a flare that emits a broad range of infrared radiation. The missile, drawn by the heat of the flare, follows it and not the plane. But modern SAMs are equipped with filters that can cancel out radiation from a simple flare. Air Force One is believed to carry flares that burn brighter and longer in the infrared frequencies that the SAMs' sensors follow...
...like to break down the damn picture plane!" Park declared at the outset of his daring venture. He and his followers never accomplished so complete a rupture. Nonetheless, they turned out what Park, had he lived to see them, might have called some very fine pictures...
...report that Colombian drug lords may be stockpiling antiaircraft missiles focuses attention on the President's plane and the electronic gear that guards...