THE NEAR shoot-down of an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa, Kenya last November again highlighted the ease with which rogue states or even individual terrorists can acquire surface-to-air missiles (SAM).

Although a low-tech, shoulder-launched, Soviet-designed SA-7 was used in the failed Kenyan attack, in the right hands and in the right conditions, these SAMs can be deadly to aircraft up to an altitude of 3,000m. Hundreds of these missiles are unaccounted for in Afghanistan while a large number of more sophisticated US Stinger SAMs, supplied by the US during the country's Soviet occupation, also are missing.

While there is little chance of commercial aircraft being fitted with automatic anti-SAM systems for cost reasons alone, many military transports are fitted with only rudimentary and outdated chaff and flare self-protection equipment. It is only now that new advanced electronic countermeasures (ECM) systems are being fitted to USAF C-17s and C-130 transports. Northrop Grumman's large aircraft infrared countermeasures (LAIRCM) system is a laser-based directed infrared countermeasures (IRCM) system. It consists of various elements of the proven NEMISIS AN/AAQ-24(V) directional infrared countermeasures (DRCM) system plus an additional laser.

Another potent self-defence system being offered to the Boeing C-17, is the BAE Systems ALE-55 fibre-optic towed decoy selected by Boeing to equip US Special Operations Forces (SOF) MC-130 Combat Talon II SF transports and AC-130 Spectre gunships. BAES also is competing to fit its ALQ-196 low-band jammer and ALQ-214 techniques generator to the SOF MC/AC-130 fleet. Lower-tech systems designed for low and slow-flying aircraft also are on the market including FLIR Systems' Star SAFIRE II multi-sensor infrared surveillance systems that have been selected by the Mexican Navy for its fleet of Casa C212-200 patrol aircraft. FLIR won a $10m contract to supply the same system to equip EH101 helicopters ordered by the Danish and Portuguese air forces and also has been shortlisted for the US Coast Guard's Deepwater project that will involve the acquisition of up to 35 fixed-wing aircraft and 34 helicopters.

Competing with the FLIR system is Saab Avionics EW suite that it is developing for the Nordic multi-role NH90 helicopters ordered by Finland, Norway and Sweden. The suite, that will comprise radar, laser and missile-warning receivers and an ECM dispensing system, is being developed in co-operation with the South African avionics company Avitronics in which Saab Avionics has a 49 per cent stake, as part of the offset agreement following the SAAF order for Saab Gripen fighters.

More sophisticated integrated systems are being developed and fitted to helicopters such as the Northrop Grumman/BAES AAQ-24 NEMESIS DIRCM, and the less expensive upgradeable ALQ-144 lantern-based system being offered to AgustaWestland Super Lynx 300 customers. Fully integrated IRCM/radar warning receivers (RWR) systems including BAES's helicopter integrated defensive aids subsystems (HIDASS) or ITT's suite of integrated radio frequency countermeasures (SIRFCM) also are Super Lynx options. SIRFCM is one of the aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) upgrade technologies being considered for the US Army's AH-64D Longbow Block 3 modernisation in 2004-9.

At the sharp end of the market, BAE Systems, EADS, Elta, Saab Avionics and Thales are bidding to supply the next generation of EW self-protection systems for the RAF Tornado GR.4 fleet. This will be a Modular DASS to provide radio frequency and infrared countermeasures with ECM to replace the Tornado Marconi Sky Shadow pod.

Saab Avionics EW suites being fitted to Batch 3 JAS Gripens include an advanced RWR system that is in the final development phase for the German Tornado fleet. It is an ultra- violet (UV) based passive missile-approach warner operating in the solar-blind UV spectrum that ensures very low false alarm rates because it is immune to those coming from the sun. The company's range of innovative ECM dispensers are fitted to the F-14 Tomcat, F-15 Eagle, Tornado and Typhoon as well as Gripen. Conventional flares have been replaced by a technique that forms clouds of hot particles, creating a decoy that emits the correct heat signature and is also spatially convincing.

Advanced EW systems for Block 50 F-16s ordered by Chile and Oman have been ordered from ITT Avionics. Under a $51m foreign military sales (FMS) contract, 22 ALQ-211(V)4 systems will be supplied to Lockheed Martin to be installed on its Fort Worth F-16 production line. Delivery begins this year of Israel's 50 Block 50 two-seat F-16Is fitted with a Raytheon EW suite. Ordered by Elisra Electronics Systems Ltd, prime contractor for the F-16I EW systems, the Raytheon missile-approach warner has a staring, single infrared focal plane array, an ultra-compact lens and a sensor package that fits into a 12cm cube.

South Korea selected an internal Northrop Grumman AN/ALQ-165 airborne self-protection jammer (ASPJ), as used by Finnish and Swiss F/A-18 Hornets, for its latest batch of KAI-produced F-16C/Ds. BAE Systems' former Lockheed Martin Sanders company has won a $58m contract to produce 42 ALR-56C(V)1 RWRs for South Korea's F-15Ks scheduled for delivery in 2005-8. The F-15K EW system includes the BAES ALE-47 chaff/flare dispenser and the Northrop Grumman ALQ-135 integrated ECM system.

The company also has won a seven-year $14m contract under the USAF Research Laboratory's Sensor Technology Applications Development and Evaluation (STADE) project to study technologies to provide near real-time high-resolution imagery and timely update of electronic warfare (EW) threat data into the cockpit. A contract also was awarded to BAE Systems to study development of next-generation radio-frequency (RF) systems including variable bandwidth amplifiers that can sense and adapt to a jammer's jamming.