MANPADS Popular on Black Market

 The black market is beginning to fill with shoulder-fired missiles (MANPADS) and concern is growing so much that the Department of Homeland Security is nearly doubling its spending on counter-measures research to $110 million this year. One focus is on Skyguard, a Northrup Grummon airport device packed inside a unit and stationed hard by runways. Described by the company as a giant laser gun with brains, Skyguard focuses an energy beam with pinpoint accuracy, heating up the explosives, detonating them prematurely. The cost is about $150 million but with large-scale production could come down to $30 million. It could be deployed at major U.S. airports by 2008 and would be far easier than equipping the commercial fleet with airborne anti-missile systems.