How do helicopters avoid missiles?

A flare or decoy flare is an aerial infrared countermeasure used by a plane or helicopter to counter an infrared homing (“heat-seeking”) surface-to-air missile or air-to-air missile. The aim is to make the infrared-guided missile seek out the heat signature from the flare rather than the aircraft’s engines.

How does a heat-seeking missile work?

Heat-seeking missiles have two major components. A radar system—which can either have a single or multiple radars—is stationed on the ground. On the top of that, the missile has a heat-seeking system, such as an infrared sensor, on its tip, which can identify infrared rays emitted by the targeted plane.

How fast do heat-seeking missiles travel?

Using modern day electromagnetic power, a missile can be launched at Mach 10 (ten time the speed of sound), this is equivalent to 3430 m/s (or 7,500 mph).

Do missiles lock onto the sun?

IR sensors on missiles are more sophisticated than to just lock on any heat source. They actually follow a heat source which has the same IR spectral signature of a jet engine exhaust. It will reject the signature of the sun or even flares which are not exactly the same as that of the real jet engine.

Are heat seeking missiles still used?

Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as “heat-seekers” since infrared is radiated strongly by hot bodies. That works only if the pilot is aware of the missile and deploys the countermeasures, and the sophistication of modern seekers has rendered them increasingly ineffective.

Can a Stinger missile shoot down a jet?

The reason we hear so much about the Stinger in these contexts is because the Stinger missile is an extremely effective weapon for shooting down aircraft. The missile uses an infrared seeker to lock on to the heat in the engine’s exhaust, and will hit nearly anything flying below 11,000 feet.

How accurate are heat-seeking missiles?

Heat-seekers are extremely effective: 90% of all United States air combat losses over the past 25 years have been caused by infrared-homing missiles. They are, however, subject to a number of simple countermeasures, most notably by dropping flares behind the target to provide false heat sources.

How does a missile lock on target?

With a semi-active radar homing system, the launch platform acquires the target with its search radar. When the passive radar of the missile’s guidance system is able to “see”/detect the radio waves reflected from the target, missile lock-on is achieved and the weapon is ready to be launched.

How accurate are heat seeking missiles?

Can heat seeking missiles lock onto humans?

Yes some could, and I have done so. An imaging infra red seeker simply looks for contrast between objects radiating a lot of IR light (hot things) and those not radiating it (cold things). At short ranges people do often provide enough contrast to their background, and might be large enough.

Can a Stinger missile hit a tank?

The Stinger is a hit-to-kill weapon, meaning it always tries to physically impact the enemy target before it goes off. That turns the skin of the targeted aircraft into shrapnel that rips through the rest of the aircraft, maximizing damage to engines, fuel tanks, and even the pilots.

How does a heat seeking missile lock on?

For heat-seeking missiles, a radar lock is only used to train the seeker head onto the target. Without a radar lock, the seeker head scans the sky looking for “bright” (hot) objects, and when it finds one, it plays a distinctive whining tone to the pilot.

Can a missile be fired with no radar lock?

It is possible to fire an active radar missile with no radar lock (so-called “maddog”); in this case, the missile will fly until it’s nearly out of fuel, and then it will turn on its radar and pursue the first target it sees. This is not a recommended strategy if there are friendly aircraft in close proximity to the enemy.

How does a Seeker Missile work and how does it work?

Many objects such as people, vehicle engines and aircraft generate and emit heat, and as such, are especially visible in the infrared wavelengths of light compared to objects in the background. Infrared seekers are passive devices, which, unlike radar, provide no indication that they are tracking a target.

How are heat seeking missiles used in Desert Storm?

Heat-seeking missiles were responsible for about 80% of air losses in Operation Desert Storm. The most common method of infrared countermeasure is deploying flares, as the heat produced by the flares creates hundreds of targets for the missile.