High intensity infra-red pyrotechnic decoy flare

Abstract

An aircraft-launched pyrotechnic decoy flare for luring an incoming missile away from the aircraft's exhaust which comprises a compactly clustered substantially void free array of discrete pieces of a gassy high intensity infra-red emitting pyrotechnic composition contained in a rupturable air-tight container. On ignition of the flare, combustion spreads rapidly along the interfaces between the discrete pieces to produce gaseous combustion products. When the pressure within the air-tight container reaches a predetermined level the container ruptures and the discrete pieces burst apart. The plurality of pieces have a large combined surface area over which combustion occurs and so produce a high intensity emission of infra-red radiation. In a preferred embodiment the discrete pieces comprise a mixtured fibrous activated carbon cloth impregnated with a metallic salt and coated with a mixture of an oxidizing halogenated polymer, an oxidizable metallic material and an organic binder. FIG. 1.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.