Device, system, and method of aircraft protection and countermeasures against missiles

A device for protecting an aircraft against missiles, the device comprising:

• (a) a Short-Wave InfraRed based (SWIR-based) Missile Tracking Unit which comprises:
• a SWIR-based optical imager associated with an optical SWIR band filter wherein the optical SWIR band filter is configured to filter-in only optical signals having wavelengths in a range of 1,400 to 3,000 nanometers;
• wherein the SWIR-based optical imager is configured to capture only SWIR optical signals from an area surrounding the aircraft;
• (b) a SWIR signals processor configured:
• to perform an analysis of the SWIR optical signals captured by the SWIR-based optical imager and to perform, based on said analysis,
• (b1) a SWIR-based missile acquisition process, which is also based on raw angular position data of a missile as received from a Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) of the aircraft, wherein the SWIR-based missile acquisition process generates an initial missile tracking data that is based on said raw angular position data of the missile;
• and then,
• (b2) a SWIR-based missile tracking process, which continuously and dynamically determines a precise angular position of the missile based on the SWIR optical signals captured by the SWIR-based optical imager;
• (c) a laser-based missile-jamming unit which comprises at least one of:
• (c1) an internal laser emitter that is located integrally within said device and is co-located with said SWIR-based Missile Tracking Unit and/or
• (c2) an external laser emitter that is located externally to said device yet in proximity to said device and is operably communicating with said device over a fiber optic communication link;
• wherein the laser-based missile-jamming unit is configured to emit a missile-jamming laser beam, towards said missile, based on a signal received from the SWIR signals processor, wherein said signal indicates the precise angular position of said missile;
• wherein at least a portion of an optical path in the device utilized by the SWIR-based optical imager for reception of SWIR optical signals, is also concurrently utilized by the laser-based missile-jamming unit for transmission of the missile-jamming laser beam.