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Flare (countermeasure)
A flare or decoy flare is an aerial infrared countermeasure used by an aircraft to counter an infrared homing ("heat-seeking") surface-to-air missile or air-to-air missile. Flares are commonly composed of a pyrotechnic composition based on magnesium or another hot-burning metal, with burning temperature equal to or hotter than engine exhaust. The aim is to make the infrared-guided missile seek out the heat signature from the flare rather than the aircraft's engines.
In contrast to radar-guided missiles, IR-guided missiles are very difficult to find as they approach aircraft. They do not emit detectable radar, and they are generally fired from behind, directly toward the engines. In most cases, pilots have to rely on their wingmen to spot the missile's smoke trail and alert of a launch. Since IR-guided missiles have a shorter range than their radar-guided counterparts, good situational awareness of altitude and potential threats continues to be an effective defense. More advanced electro-optical systems can detect missile launches automatically from the distinct thermal emissions of a missile's rocket motor.
Once the presence of a "live" IR missile is indicated, flares are released by the aircraft in an attempt to decoy the missile. Some systems are automatic, while others require manual jettisoning of the flares. The aircraft would then pull away at a sharp angle from the flare (and the terminal trajectory of the missile) and reduce engine power in an attempt to cool the thermal signature. Ideally the missile's seeker head is then confused by this change in temperature and flurry of new heat signatures, and starts to follow one of the flares rather than the aircraft.
More modern IR-guided missiles have sophisticated on-board electronics and secondary electro-optical sensors that help discriminate between flares and targets, reducing the effectiveness of flares as a reactionary countermeasure. A newer procedure involves preemptively deploying flares in anticipation of a missile launch, which distorts the expected image of the target should one be let loose. This "pre-flaring" increases the chances that the missile then follows the flares or the open sky in between, rather than a part of the actual defender.
Apart from military use, some civilian aircraft are also equipped with countermeasure flares, against terrorism: the Israeli airline El Al, having been the target of the failed 2002 airliner attack, in which shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles were fired at an airliner while taking off, began equipping its fleet with radar-based, automated flare release countermeasures from June 2004. This caused concerns in some European countries, which proceeded to ban such aircraft from landing at their airports.
On 18 June 2017, after an AIM-9X did not successfully track a targeted Syrian Air Force Su-22 Fitter, US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael "Mob" Tremel flying a F/A-18E Super Hornet used an AMRAAM missile to successfully destroy the enemy aircraft. There is a theory that the Sidewinder is tested against American and not Soviet/Russian flares. The Sidewinder is used to rejecting American but not Soviet/Russian flares. Similar issues arose from the testing of the AIM-9P model. The missile would ignore American flares but go for Soviet ones due to these flares having "different burn time, intensity and separation."
Flares burn at thousands of degrees Celsius, which is much hotter than the exhaust of a jet engine. IR missiles seek out the hotter flame, believing it to be an aircraft in afterburner or the beginning of the engine's exhaust source.
As the more modern infrared seekers tend to have spectral sensitivity tailored to more closely match the emissions of airplanes and reject other sources (the so-called CCM, or counter-countermeasures), the modernized decoy flares have their emission spectrum optimized to also match the radiation of the airplane (mainly its engines and engine exhaust). In addition to spectral discrimination, the CCMs can include trajectory discrimination and detection of size of the radiation source.
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Flare (countermeasure)
A flare or decoy flare is an aerial infrared countermeasure used by an aircraft to counter an infrared homing ("heat-seeking") surface-to-air missile or air-to-air missile. Flares are commonly composed of a pyrotechnic composition based on magnesium or another hot-burning metal, with burning temperature equal to or hotter than engine exhaust. The aim is to make the infrared-guided missile seek out the heat signature from the flare rather than the aircraft's engines.
In contrast to radar-guided missiles, IR-guided missiles are very difficult to find as they approach aircraft. They do not emit detectable radar, and they are generally fired from behind, directly toward the engines. In most cases, pilots have to rely on their wingmen to spot the missile's smoke trail and alert of a launch. Since IR-guided missiles have a shorter range than their radar-guided counterparts, good situational awareness of altitude and potential threats continues to be an effective defense. More advanced electro-optical systems can detect missile launches automatically from the distinct thermal emissions of a missile's rocket motor.
Once the presence of a "live" IR missile is indicated, flares are released by the aircraft in an attempt to decoy the missile. Some systems are automatic, while others require manual jettisoning of the flares. The aircraft would then pull away at a sharp angle from the flare (and the terminal trajectory of the missile) and reduce engine power in an attempt to cool the thermal signature. Ideally the missile's seeker head is then confused by this change in temperature and flurry of new heat signatures, and starts to follow one of the flares rather than the aircraft.
More modern IR-guided missiles have sophisticated on-board electronics and secondary electro-optical sensors that help discriminate between flares and targets, reducing the effectiveness of flares as a reactionary countermeasure. A newer procedure involves preemptively deploying flares in anticipation of a missile launch, which distorts the expected image of the target should one be let loose. This "pre-flaring" increases the chances that the missile then follows the flares or the open sky in between, rather than a part of the actual defender.
Apart from military use, some civilian aircraft are also equipped with countermeasure flares, against terrorism: the Israeli airline El Al, having been the target of the failed 2002 airliner attack, in which shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles were fired at an airliner while taking off, began equipping its fleet with radar-based, automated flare release countermeasures from June 2004. This caused concerns in some European countries, which proceeded to ban such aircraft from landing at their airports.
On 18 June 2017, after an AIM-9X did not successfully track a targeted Syrian Air Force Su-22 Fitter, US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael "Mob" Tremel flying a F/A-18E Super Hornet used an AMRAAM missile to successfully destroy the enemy aircraft. There is a theory that the Sidewinder is tested against American and not Soviet/Russian flares. The Sidewinder is used to rejecting American but not Soviet/Russian flares. Similar issues arose from the testing of the AIM-9P model. The missile would ignore American flares but go for Soviet ones due to these flares having "different burn time, intensity and separation."
Flares burn at thousands of degrees Celsius, which is much hotter than the exhaust of a jet engine. IR missiles seek out the hotter flame, believing it to be an aircraft in afterburner or the beginning of the engine's exhaust source.
As the more modern infrared seekers tend to have spectral sensitivity tailored to more closely match the emissions of airplanes and reject other sources (the so-called CCM, or counter-countermeasures), the modernized decoy flares have their emission spectrum optimized to also match the radiation of the airplane (mainly its engines and engine exhaust). In addition to spectral discrimination, the CCMs can include trajectory discrimination and detection of size of the radiation source.