• The RAF purchased a number of BriteCloud decoys and has carried out trials from a Tornado GR4
• BriteCloud was designed to beat 21st century threats, with its innovation centring on the miniaturisation of advanced jamming technology
• The decoys performed as planned, automatically detecting threat radars and jamming them with the decoy’s embedded DRFM jammer

The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) has successfully carried out its initial evaluation of Finmeccanica’s BriteCloud decoy. BriteCloud is a new-generation anti-missile countermeasure featuring breakthroughtechnology developed in the UK. The RAF purchased a number of decoys and has carried out trials against a range of simulated threats featuring real radar systems. The tests demonstrated the effectiveness of the BriteCloud decoys against the kind of modern threats that could be encountered by pilots and proved the maturity of the technology.

Modern radar-guided missiles are able to defeat the traditional chaff countermeasures that have been in use since WW2. BriteCloud was designed to beat 21st century threats, with its innovation centring on the miniaturisation of advanced jamming technology. The final product is a battery-powered Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) jammer in a completely self-contained unit, reduced to the size of drinks can. The decoy is therefore small enough to be ejected from fighter aircraft in exactly the same way as a flare, allowing pilots to lure even the most up-to-date RF-guided missiles and fire control radars away from their aircraft.

During the tests, which took place in the USA in October 2015, a number of fully functional decoys were launched from a Tornado GR4 aircraft as it was tracked by ground-based advanced RF threat systems. The decoys performed as planned, automatically detecting threat radars and jamming them with the decoy’s embedded DRFM jammer.

Finmeccanica press release