The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station hosts Man Portable Air Defense Systems training seminar Published June 15, 2010 By Staff Sgt. Joseph McKee 914th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station -- The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station hosted a Man Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) training seminar on June 5 and 6 to provide military, local, state and federal law enforcement officers information to deal with threats these systems pose to civil and military aviation. Training both military and law enforcement officers was Mr. Jeff Claxton a MANPADS expert at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center. The training took place over two days. Training sessions on day one where for local, state, and federal law enforcement and. The second day of training was directed towards military aviators and intelligence personnel. Both training days featured a Missile and Space Intelligence Center MANPADS trainer. The trainer is to scale and weight of a real MANPADS, and attendees got hands on training to get a sense of a real MANPADS engagement. By the end of the weekend Mr. Claxton provided mission-specific training to over 300 law enforcement and military aviators on MANPADS. MANPADS were originally developed in the late 1950s to provide military ground forces protection from enemy aircraft. They have received a great deal of attention as potential terrorist weapons that might be used against commercial airliners. These missiles, affordable and widely available through a variety of sources, have been used over the past three decades both in military conflicts, as well as by terrorist organizations. Many countries, including the United States, produce man-portable air defense systems. Possession, export, and trafficking in such weapons are officially tightly controlled, due to the threat they pose to civil aviation.