A comparison of guided and unguided anti-missile kinetic kill countermeasures

Modern Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs) present a significant threat to today's military and civilian aircraft. Current countermeasure systems such as flares and chaff rely on decoying the missile threat and do not provide adequate protection against advanced computerized missiles. An aircraft defense system that actively seeks out and defeats an incoming missile by placing a physical barrier in the missile's path offers a promising alternative to current countermeasures technology. This paper reports the results of a comparison study between self guided or "smart" missiles, which seek out SAMs, and unguided, or "dumb," countermeasures that are placed in the path of the incoming missile. Both systems utilize a kinetic kill mechanism and are designed to protect the aircraft from shoulder launched missiles while the aircraft is in the takeoff and climb-out configurations.