decoy

decoy, deceptive device used to draw an enemy away from a more important target. Active decoys are the principal method of self-defense for military aircraft and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Passive decoys, or dummies, are used to deceive visual intelligence such as photo reconnaissance.

The main threats to modern military aircraft are antiaircraft missiles, which travel faster and maneuver better than the best jet fighters. Heat-seeking missiles are designed to follow heat sources such as the jet exhaust of a modern aircraft. To elude these missiles, a jet may release active decoys called flares, which are tubes containing magnesium that burn with an intense white heat. Because flares initially burn hotter than jet exhaust, they may confuse the missile by offering it several hot targets, giving the aircraft a chance to escape.

Radar-guided missiles, another form of antiaircraft missiles, use radar to locate their targets. While flares are useless against this technology, radar is vulnerable to a type of active decoy known as chaff, which consists of tiny strips of aluminum or zinc that the aircraft releases in large bunches. These metallic clouds appear as separate targets to the missile’s radar and ideally confuse the missile, thus permitting the aircraft to escape.

Antiballistic missiles (ABMs) are designed to target an incoming ICBM and destroy it high in the atmosphere before its warhead is delivered. To counter ABMs, most ICBMs carry multiple fake or dummy warheads as decoys. The dummy warheads separate from the ICBM at the same time as the real warhead and are designed to jam the ABM’s radar and confuse it by offering it several targets.

While active decoys work by imitating the unseen properties of a target, such as its heat or radar emissions, passive decoys work by fooling the eye. Most visual intelligence information gathered today comes from aerial photographs taken by spy satellites and reconnaissance aircraft. Aerial reconnaissance is an efficient way to gather large amounts of data, but aerial photos of dummy tanks, planes, guns, and trucks can deceive even trained analysts.

Dummy troops and equipment played a key role in the Allied invasion of France in 1944. The Germans expected the Allies to invade at Pas-de-Calais, the closest point in France to the English coast. The Allies, however, decided to invade much farther west, in Normandy. To disguise their intentions, the Allies employed Operation Fortitude, which created a fake army in the area of England closest to Pas-de-Calais. The so-called First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) consisted of thousands of cardboard and rubber dummy tanks and airplanes, fake troop barracks and supply dumps, and enough humans to give the appearance of great activity. Even after the actual invasion had begun, the Germans were convinced that FUSAG was still going to invade at Pas-de-Calais, and they refused to send reinforcements to Normandy. By the time the Germans realized that they had been deceived, the Allied forces were well established in France.

The use of dummies continues, even though aerial photography has become much more detailed and analysts are much better able to spot fakes. Indeed, during the Kosovo conflict in the late 1990s, the Yugoslav army used decoy tanks to mislead the NATO air strikes. In an age of high-technology warfare, low-tech solutions such as dummies remain effective.