ADVANCED IRCM SOURCE

FUTURE THREAT INFRARED MISSILE SEEKERS WILL POSSESS THE CAPABILITY TO EFFECTIVELY DISCRIMINATE AGAINST IR DECOY FLARES. NEW DECOY FUELS MUST BE IDENTIFIED WHICH PROVIDE A GOOD SPECTRAL MATCH BETWEEN DECOYS AND HELICOPTERS, AND WHICH HAVE IMPROVED TOTAL RADIANT INTENSITY AND BURNING CHARACTERISTICS. IN ADDITION, ALTERNATIVE DECOY CONCEPTS TO THE FREE-GRAIN FLARE MUST BE EVALUATED. IN THIS PROPOSAL, A COMPUTER SCREENING PROCEDURE IS OUTLINED FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE MOST PROMISING DECOY FUELS FOR INCORPORATION INTO AN ADVANCED DECOY SYSTEMS CONCEPT. THE PROCEDURE INVOLVED IDENTIFYING A LARGE NUMBER OF POTENTIAL FUELS AND PERFORMING INITIAL SCREENING CALCULATIONS WITH AN EQUILIBRIUM COMBUSTION CODE AND SIMPLE RADIATION TRANSPORT COMPUTATIONS. THE BEST COMPOUNDS WILL BE INVESTIGATED MORE THOROUGHLY WITH A FULLY-FINITE RATE CONTROLLED COMBUSTION CODE, PLUME FLOW FIELD CODES AND A RADIATION TRANSPORT CODE. THIS PROCEDURE PERMITS THE EVALUATION OF A LARGE NUMBER OF POTENTIAL DECOY FUELS, WHICH CANNOT BE ACCOMPLISHED IN A COST-EFFECTIVE MANNER BY THE TRADITIONAL "CUT-AND-TRY" APPROACH TO THE DESIGN OF NEW IR DECOYS.