Lasers on aircraft sound like something out of science fiction, even now in 2025.
And having said that, this technology remains the realm of the military – even in science fiction.
As such, any claim that such tests were being done by a civilian company in the 2000s would probably sound unbelievably fantastic and far-fetched.
That said, it has been claimed that the global courier giant FedEx actually tested an anti-missile laser system on some of its aircraft in 2007.
Is this true, or is it science fiction?
VERDICT:
TRUE
Yes, FedEx did test such a system on several aircraft in its fleet due to the increasing threat of man-portable surface-to-air missiles being fired at civilian aircraft.
As cited in a Jan 2007 article by the portal Aero News Network, FedEx mounted the Northrop Grumman Corporation's then-new Guardian system in an experiment to see how it would work.
“Northrop bills the Guardian system as a defensive aid utilising proven military technology to defend against the threat posed by anti-aircraft, shoulder-fired missiles.
Components of the system are mounted in a bathtub-sized pod on an aircraft's lower fuselage.
Once launched, the system should detect the missile and direct a non-visible, eye-safe laser to its seeker head, disrupting guidance signals,” wrote Aero News Network in its article.
And with that said, the system was ultimately not incorporated as standard across the FedEx fleet due to regulatory concerns.
Indeed, as written in a Jan 2022 article by Reuters, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that proposed conditions that could have allowed FedEx to install a laser-based missile defence on Airbus A321-200 aeroplanes were being withdrawn as “further study is necessary.”
This follows on from an Oct 2019 application to the FAA by FedEx for approval to use a system that emits infrared laser energy outside the aircraft as a countermeasure against heat-seeking missiles.
So yes, the technology not only exists and was tested – there was an attempt to get it approved, one shot down by the FAA due to more studies being needed stemming from safety concerns regarding the system in use.
Reference
https://www.aero-news.net/
