A Sovietera helicopter spews flares promiscuously. It fires rockets into a hillside, turns,and flies away scattering more flares in its wake. This is Afghanistan in 1981. It is also Macedonia in 2001. From one generation to the next, expendable countermeasures ejected from platforms remain the most widely used self-protection method. The reasons are simple: They are inexpensive, in ready supply, easy to use, and relatively effective. In a 21st century, where unobtrusive, solid-state jammers and slick, turret-mounted directed IR countermeasures (DIRCM) should rule, it is flare and chaff that reigns over the battlefield.
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