Selex ES Successfully Demos BriteCloud Expendable Active Decoy Technology

Selex ES has successfully carried out multiple end-to-end tests of its BriteCloud Expendable Active Decoy (EAD) technology.

The tests proved the new technology’s capability under live conditions and will clear the way for Selex ES to begin production of the decoys.

BriteCloud is a self-contained Digital RF Memory (DRFM) jammer for fast jet aircraft, providing an off-board capability to decoy RF-guided missiles and fire control radars. During the tests, which took place in the first week of February, fully functional decoys were launched from a fighter aircraft that was being tracked by a ground-based fire-control radar. All of the decoys performed as planned, on each occasion detecting the threat radar and jamming it with the decoy’s embedded DRFM jammer. The fire control radar's lock on the fighter aircraft was immediately broken and it subsequently tracked the decoy until it impacted the ground.

“We had already done a huge amount of testing, including extensive computer modelling and ground-based sled trials, so we were confident in the performance of BriteCloud” said Pete Forrest, VP Marketing and Sales for Electronic Warfare at Selex ES, adding; “That said, it’s great to have put the decoy in a real life scenario and seen it perform exactly as intended, which will reassure some potential customers who maybe didn’t quite believe that this technology is as far ahead of our competition as we’ve just proven.”

Britecloud was launched by Selex ES in November 2013 in conjunction with its launch partner Saab who are offering the decoy as an EW enhancement option with its entire range of Gripen jets. The form factor of BriteCloud, which is the same size and shape as a flare and dispensed from a standard 55mm flare cartridge, makes it ideally suited for a range of fighter jets and these tests with a non-Gripen aircraft will reinforce Selex ES’s efforts to have the decoy picked up by further platform manufacturers.