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.