Light elves fight terrorism

Light-emitting sea creatures demonstrate a survival mechanism applied in defense systems against shoulder-fired missiles.

By: Shimon Bogan

The critical necessity of having active defense systems against the impact of shoulder-fired missiles on civilian aircraft has been illustrated in the past in several aviation disasters. Just recently, a Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, apparently by a surface-to-air missile. 298 passengers and crew were killed.

The missiles are equipped with an infra-red light radiation guidance system and they are heated by the heat of the aircraft's engine. The deadly effectiveness of these missiles received a defensive response in the form of scattering fireworks and flares from combat aircraft, which masked the hot exhaust gases from the engine, misled the guidance system and diverted the missiles to a safe distance from the planes and helicopters. An upgrade of the guidance systems of the shoulder missiles A multispectral whisper is answered by scattering chaff of burning magnesium chips. in the attached video Link You can see the launch of anti-aircraft missiles in the Hercules plane.

The "Blue Streak Cardinal" fish has had the same survival mechanism for millions of years. These are plankton-eating fish in murky waters, whose menu also includes luminous Ostracods. The blue glow of the clams is a feature of bioluminescence, which characterizes fireflies, for example. It is formed as a result of an oxidation reaction between the protein-like pigment luciferin and the oxygen in the seawater, in the presence of the enzyme luciferase. The clams emit the blue fireworks in a state of sexual arousal or in a state of stress/distress. Video Recently filmed by a Nature BBC team, it shows the amazing abilities of the tiny crustaceans and the surprising exploitation demonstrated by the fish - swallowing the light-producing creatures and spitting them out quickly as balls of "fire" - to deter and defend against marine predatory enemies.

Dealing with and fighting predators and terrorist elements is constantly escalating and intensifying, and requires an upgrade and strengthening of countermeasures.

Sea creatures have been found that produce light, which are able to emit bioluminescent cocktail and create flashes strong enough to blind, blind and momentarily stun their predatory enemies, and gain the opportunity to slip away and survive. See for example the the photography and the animation video of the snails from the family of Acanthephyra purpurea,

And another video illustrating the phenomenon.

This biomimetic approach did not go unnoticed by the talented and skilled scientists and engineers at Elbit Systems Alope, when they came to develop and produce the active protection system C-MUSIC SkyShield Against the danger of shoulder missiles - a solid shield. This is a completely autonomous system that scans the airspace around the plane, detects a missile in flight, locks a powerful infrared laser beam on it, disrupts the missile's vision/guidance system and causes it to deviate from its trajectory away from the target plane. The system is assembled under the belly of the civil aircraft, and its list price is less than a million dollars per aircraft.

This system received flattering headlines in the international media during the "Tzuk Eitan" operation, when civilian Israeli aircraft, which were equipped with this system, were able to continue flights during the operation, compared to American airlines, which did not equip the aircraft with an anti-missile defense system, not even one made in the USA - and avoided flying here...