Patent showing laser decoy system US Navy PatentThe U.S. Navy has patented technology to create mid-air images to fool infrared and other sensors. More recently laser infrared countermeasures have been fielded which dazzle the infrared seeker. The Laser Induced Plasma Effects program uses single plasma bursts as flash-bang stun grenades; a rapid series of such pluses can even be modulated to transmit a spoken message (video here). This technology underlies the Navy project, which uses LIPFs to create phantom images with infrared emissions to fool heat-seeking missiles. Heat-seeking missiles will no doubt evolve ways to distinguish the plasma ghosts from real jets, leading to further refinement of the decoy technology, and so on.

Source: Forbes May 11, 2020 16:07 UTC