UK Buys Leonardo-Finmeccanica's 'BriteCloud' Missile Jammer

UK Air Force has purchased a $US3.2 million worth missile-jammer ‘BriteCloud’ from Leonardo Finmeccanica that protects pilots from radar-guided missiles and enables the airforce to write user guide for pilots.

The company announced Friday that new decoy enables the Kingdom’s air force to further evaluate BriteCloud’s protective effect with its fleet of Tornado jets and develop a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for the technology.

A CONOPS essentially provides an instruction manual for the crews who will deploy with BriteCloud and the development of CONOPS is usually seen as the last step before the new technology goes into use on real missions.

The decoy provides digital countermeasure protection against air-to-air and surface-to-air radar-guided missiles in a package the size of a 55mm flare. Based on miniaturised jamming technology, BriteCloud is able to launch from a standard 55mm flare dispenser with no extra integration required.

The next step towards a potential adoption for operational use by the RAF is the development of a concept of operations. This will allow the RAF to characterize the behavior of the decoy in realistic scenarios and develop ways to use it in combat.

As part of this development, a series of further trials on RAF Tornadoes will take place to verify and extend the operational advantage of the countermeasure.

The BriteCloud Expendable Active Decoy (EAD) has been developed by Leonardo in collaboration with the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) and the UK MoD's Defence Equipment and Support organisation.

BriteCloud was launched in November 2013 and is now in full production following successful trials on Tornado and Saab’s Gripen NG aircraft. Finmeccanica is working with Saab to offer the decoy as an electronic warfare enhancement option for its full range of Gripen jets including the upcoming ‘E’ model.