BALTIMORE, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Sea tests have been carried out on a new defensive system to protect U.S. warships from attacks by small suicide-bomber boats.
The Lockheed Martin system known as FIAC establishes a 5-mile defensive zone that can identify and engage threats while still out of visual range, reducing the threat of a seagoing attack like the one that hit the U.S. destroyer Cole in 2000.
"The FIAC Defense System can provide navies around the world with the ability to protect ships from one of their most serious littoral threats," said Lockheed Vice President Dave Broadbent said in a news release Wednesday.
The FAIC (Fast Inshore Attack Craft) system uses the ship's radar to make the initial detection of a potential target and then zeros in on it with an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a video camera to determine whether or not it is an actual threat.
The long-distance look will theoretically give the crew the chance to engage with a laser-guided Hellfire missile fired from the deck, from a patrolling helicopter or even the UAV itself.
FAIC completed the "Spiral-3" test phase in the Pacific recently. The test involved the full process except for the laser-and-missile finale. That will be left to Spirals 4 and 5 in which multiple targets will be lit up by the laser and sunk by the missile.
The system is being developed by Lockheed with its own R-and-D funds.
