Instant decoys for armored vehicles. A literature survey

The TNO Prins Maurits Laboratory is involved with projects that deal with vulnerability of armored vehicles. Such activities take place in both national and international programs and are especially performed in the group Weapon Effectiveness. One of the other groups within TNOPML is the group Pyrotechnics and Energetic Materials. As the name of the group implies its principal focal areas are pyrotechnics and energetic materials. These classes of materials continue to find applications in electronic countermeasures for all forces. In this paper some results are presented from a performed literature survey1 for instant decoys for armored ground vehicles it describes the basic “state of the art” for this specific application.
In this literature survey three principally different methods were found which should instantly offer a decoy for armored vehicles. The first method describes a projectile that is propelled from the armored vehicle, and while in flight, it expands from its collapsed state thereby ‘instantly’ emitting an infrared signature, using a combination of pyrophoric coating and pyrotechnic devices. The pyrophoric material causes immediate combustion reaction upon exposure to the atmosphere. Additionally radar reflection is offered by dipole prints on the fabric of the deployed material. The second method uses an inflatable balloon structure, which is covered with a layer (or which carries a layer within) designed to exothermally react and cause the desired infrared emission. The third method uses an inflatable structure, offering an infrared signature as a result of the released gasses used to expand the structure; this structure is to remain on top of the armored vehicle. Other methods will be briefly discussed as well, but these are not typically designed for “instant” use, or the methods are, for different reasons, not commonly known as a decoy.
The pyrophoric and pyrotechnic materials that have been described in these methods for generating the desired infrared signature in the appropriate bands will be discussed briefly. Examples of these are white phosphorous and black powder.