Armtec Countermeasures Wins $250M for F-16, C-130 Decoy Flares

The U.S. Air Force today awarded Armtec Countermeasures a $250 million deal to provide MJU-75/B countermeasure flares used on F-16 fighter jets.

This contract provides a magnesium Teflon Viton countermeasure flare, which is utilized on rotary-wing and fixed-wing aircraft such as C-130, C-17, F-16 to protect against infrared missiles, a U.S. DoD release today said.

Work is expected to be completed March 2027.

Military aircraft pop flares to counter an infrared homing ("heat-seeking") surface-to-air missile or air-to-air missile. Countermeasure flares burn at thousands of degrees and there is a wide variety of types, the vast majority of which ignite when their volatile compound mix is exposed to the air itself. These are can be referred to as pyrophoric flares.