South African charter operator Naturelink Aviation has participated in a demonstration of Saab’s newly-developed anti-missile defence system for civil aircraft.
Naturelink Aviation, which is based at Pretoria’s Wonderboom Airport and part-owned by Safair, operates a fleet of 24 light aircraft including seven Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias.
It provided a Brasilia for Thursday’s (15 March) demonstration of the Civil Aircraft Missile Protection System (CAMPS) designed by Saab Avitronics and Chemring Countermeasures.
CAMPS is based on an ultra-violet missile-approach sensor and an electromechanical dispenser, the production version of which will be capable of firing a non-pyrotechnical infra-red decoy. Unlike flares, the decoy material burns invisibly and reduces to a powder, potentially avoiding ground-fire risk.
“This demonstration is an important milestone in our CAMPS programme,” says Saab Avitronics president Bjorn Erman.
Trials of the system took place at the Overberg testing range which is located on the southern tip of Africa to the southeast of Cape Town, a region where air traffic is light.
Naturelink operates contract flights into hostile locations such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Source: FlightGlobal.com
