Simulating pre-emptive countermeasures of varying performance against a Man-Portable Air-Defence (MANPAD) system with a track angle bias counter-countermeasure (CCM)

Military aircraft face a serious threat from early generation Man-Portable Air-Defence (MANPAD) systems. Robust countermeasures have to be used to counteract this threat. Most commonly these are used after the threat has been launched and detected. However, a MANPAD may or may not include counter-countermeasures (CCMs) that are designed to defeat reactively fired decoys. In this paper we investigated the effect of pre-emptive countermeasures on different MANPAD models. This is achieved through the use of CounterSim, a missile engagement and countermeasure simulation software tool, which has the ability to model the full pre-launch phase of an engagement between a MANPAD and an aircraft. Three MANPAD models are developed with one infrared (IR) seeker containing a track angle bias CCM capability and two different CCM triggers. The first simulations look at pre-emptive flare deployment for the full operational envelope of an early generation MANPAD. Then, simulations compare reactive with pre-emptive countermeasure deployment by firing flares throughout an engagement up until the hit point. Finally, different flare types are looked at with reduced burn time and intensity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.