Abstract: An aircraft-launched pyrotechnic decoy flare for luring an incoming missile away from the aircraft's exhaust which comprises a compactly clustered substantially void free array of discrete pieces of a gassy high intensity infra-red emitting pyrotechnic composition contained in a rupturable air-tight container. On ignition of the flare, combustion spreads rapidly along the interfaces between the discrete pieces to produce gaseous combustion products. When the pressure within the air-tight container reaches a predetermined level the container ruptures and the discrete pieces burst apart. The plurality of pieces have a large combined surface area over which combustion occurs and so produce a high intensity emission of infra-red radiation. In a preferred embodiment the discrete pieces comprise a mixtured fibrous activated carbon cloth impregnated with a metallic salt and coated with a mixture of an oxidizing halogenated polymer, an oxidizable metallic material and an organic binder. FIG. 1.

Abstract: An aircraft launched pyrotechnic decoy flare (1) which comprises a pellet (2) configured with a cavity (4) which extends along a fore-and-aft axis (8) of the pellet (2) and is vented at its rearward end (12). Part of the external surface of the pellet (2) is covered with a casing (16) to prevent combustion of said part of the surface. The pellet (2) is made of a gassy pyrotechnic composition including an organic binder, and an oxidizing halogenated polymer and an oxidizable metallic material which react with each other on ignition and emit infrared radiation. When the flare (1) is ignited the surface of the cavity (4) combusts and produces hot gaseous products which escape from the cavity (4) through the vent (22) thus propelling the flare (1) in a forwards direction. In this way the flare (1) can be propelled in the same direction as the aircraft to reduce the rate at which the flare (1) separates from the aircraft exhaust.