Flare Plume RCS Enhancement for Multi-Spectral Decoy Applications

Interest in the use of expendables as a passive ECM for aircraft self-protection has increased dramatically in the past few years. One of the important remaining problems is that of obtaining or producing multi-spectral signatures for the expendables or decoys. Currently, separate expendable devices are needed if the threat sensor type is unknown or multi-spectral. A few recent Air Force programs have pursued the idea of obtaining RF, IR and laser (EO) signatures from a single decoy, but the technology is still in the developmental state, and some of the concepts result in a mechanically complex device. The approach proposed here is different in that exiting flare technology will be used as the baseline or starting point, and the RF signature will be obtained by modifying the flare materials that generate or enhance the RF scattering that a measurable (but small) RCS is generated by conventional flares. Other experimental work has shown that seeding the flare material with compounds such as Cesium will increase the concentration of free electrons in the flare plume, which can result in increased RCS levels.