Countering MANPADS: study of new concepts and applications

Abstract

The latest events of ground-to-air Man Portable Air Defense (MANPAD) attacks against aircraft have revealed a new threat both for military and civilian aircraft. Consequently, the implementation of Protecting systems (i.e. Directed InfraRed Counter Measure -DIRCM) in order to face IR guided missiles turns out to be now inevitable. In a near future, aircraft will have to possess detection, tracking, targeting and jamming capabilities to face single and multiple MANPAD threats fired in short-range scenarios from various environments (urban sites, landscape …).In this paper, a practical example of a DIRCM system under study at SAGEM DEFENSE & SECURITY company is presented. The self-protection solution includes built-in and automatic locking-on, tracking, identification and laser jamming capabilities, including defeat assessment. Target Designations are provided by a Missile Warning System. Multiple Target scenarios have been considered to design the system architecture.The article deals with current and future threats (IR seekers of different generations…), scenarios and platforms for system definition. Plus, it stresses on self-protection solutions based on laser jamming capability. Different strategies including target identification, multi band laser, active imagery are described. The self-protection system under study at SAGEM DEFENSE & SECURITY company is also a part of this chapter.Eventually, results of self-protection scenarios are provided for different MANPAD scenarios. Data have been obtained from a simulation software. The results highlight how the system reacts to incoming IR-guided missiles in short time scenarios.

Modeling and Simulation of the Active Jammer Effect in the Crossed Array Detectors Infrared Seeker

“…Therefore, the homing missile requires a Counter Counter-Measure (CCM) to remove or overcome the effects of countermeasures for efficient target tracking [1][2][3][4][5][6]. In general, the IR missiles utilize the thermal energy radiated or reflected by the target.…”