Worker shortage cost FedEx $470 million 0:59
(CNN) --
FedEx wants to operate cargo planes equipped with lasers that launch incoming heat-seeking missiles, according to newly released federal documents.
In a presentation this Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA, for its acronym in English), indicated that FedEx had requested permission to add the anti-missile defense system.
The agency said the "FedEx missile defense system directs infrared laser energy toward an incoming missile, in an effort to disrupt the missile's tracking of aircraft heat," according to a document filed Friday by the Federal Aviation Administration. .
There are reasons to worry.
In 2003, a surface-to-air missile crashed into the left wing of an Airbus A330 operating for DHL just after taking off from Baghdad.
The crew returned to the airport unharmed.
“In recent years, in several incidents abroad, man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) have fired on civil aircraft,” the FAA document says.
"This has led several companies to design and adapt systems such as a laser-based missile defense system for installation on civil aircraft, to protect those aircraft against heat-seeking missiles."
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Now aviation regulators will hear 45 days of public comment before approving "a system that emits infrared laser energy outside the aircraft as a countermeasure against heat-seeking missiles" on Airbus A321-200 aircraft.
The FAA document says that FedEx began the government approval process to modify the A321-200 in 2019, although the company does not yet own that type of aircraft.
FedEx did not respond to CNN's request for comment.