When pilots enter enemy territory, they are faced with the deadly threat of being shot down by in-coming missiles.
This threat leads to a pilot’s ability to make a life-saving decision as to which defensive countermeasure to deploy:
Use Chaff or Flares…so, what’s the difference between the two?
Let’s begin with the similarities of of the two systems.
Both Chaff and Flares are ejected from tubes on the aircraft with the purpose of “confusing” the in-coming missile.
They “confuse” the threat by leading the missile to veer off course and chase either the Chaff or Flare.
Simple enough, now for the major difference.
Both Surface-to-Air and Air-to-Air attacking missiles function in one of two ways.
Either they lock onto the heat emitted by the defensive aircraft’s jet thrusters/engine…as in, a “Heat-seeking Missile”.
Or the missiles lock onto defensive aircraft’s radar energy reflecting back to the firing missile’s targeting system…missile tracks an electromagnetic signal.
When you see the “fireworks” ejecting from an aircraft, what you are seeing is called Flares.
Specifically, you’re seeing multiple magnesium pellets igniting and burning at a temperature above 2-thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
Because the burning flares are hotter than the defensive jet’s engine nozzle, the “Heat-seekers” chase the hotter inferred source.
On the other-hand, Chaff is used for “electronic war”.
Chaff is made up of small metallic “feather-like” material that creates a cloud when ejected into the defensive jet’s airstream.
Chaff creates a cloud that is almost invisible to the naked eye.
However for the in-coming missile, the reflective Chaff material appears as a large electromagnetic target…fooling the missile to hit the largest target that it detects in the area.
Back to the pilot’s tough decision and for the reason that Chaff/Flares are launched in unison.
If Flares work for “heat-seeker” and Chaff works for radar detecting missiles then the pilot will often launch both defensive countermeasures.
This is why you often hear about pilots deploying both Chaff and Flares.
Taken a step further, this is why you see aircraft such as the A-10 “Warthog” Thunderbolt II launching flares after it makes a gun-run on an enemy target.
Basically the pilot knows that when it launches a missile or shoots its gun, they are going to show-up as an easier target for bad-guys to lock on and shoot down.
By firing a missile on target and then launching Chaff/Flares afterwards, they are guarding against the enemy when their aircraft is most vulnerable to being detected.
When you see a photo of flares and clouds from aircraft, most-likely you’re only seeing the smoke from a burning flare.
However the defensive aircraft is also leaving an almost un-seeable cloud in the jet stream made-up of metallic feathers too.
Above is another example of what Chaff looks like to the visible eye and below is how a radar detecting missile sees that same metallic feather material.
That’s the difference between the Chaff and Flares.
Pretty amazing to think about how much our bad-A** aviators are tasked with knowing while flying into enemy territory.
If there are any Chivers who would like to add to this gallery, let me hear it in the comments and I’ll gladly go back and add details to this gallery.
-Rick
