Patent ID: 8066218

Claim:
A method for producing a decoy infrared signature to direct an incoming infrared guided missile away from an aircraft infrared signature and to the decoy infrared signature, the method comprising: deploying a towed IR decoy during at least one aircraft flight time period including aircraft take off and aircraft landing; powering the towed IR decoy by a laser source located within said aircraft; amplifying said laser source with an amplifier located within said aircraft to produce an IR decoy infrared signature; wherein the IR decoy infrared signature is of a magnitude greater than the infrared signature of said aircraft, and wherein said IR decoy infrared signature includes infrared energy in more than one spectral band; distributing the IR decoy infrared signature by means of a plurality of optical fibers of various lengths coupled to a plurality of small apertures within the IR decoy; detecting an incoming infrared guided missile with a warning system, and responsive to said detecting, further including the act of masking an infrared signature of at least one engine of the aircraft by causing a first amount of exhaust obscurant to be added into an exhaust stream of said at least one engine of the aircraft; and retracting the towed IR decoy after the aircraft reaches an altitude that is beyond a range of an infrared guided missile or proximate the time immediately preceding or after the aircraft has landed.