Flares help plane evade enemy missile attack

CNN:

A U.S. military plane carrying three U.S. senators and one member of the House of Representatives came under rocket fire Thursday night and had to make evasive maneuvers as it left Baghdad for Amman, Jordan.

"Our plane leaving Iraq was fired upon, and it was a close call, but this is something that our men and women in combat face every day," Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Alabama, said in a statement. "The flight crew was outstanding, and I credit them for the way they handled the situation."

Sens. Mel Martinez, R-Florida; Richard Shelby, R-Alabama; and James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, were also on the flight.

Multi-National Force-Iraq, in a statement issued Friday, said the C-130 crew "dispensed flares as a defensive countermeasure and conducted standard evasive maneuvers. The aircraft, crew and passengers safely completed their flight."

Shelby told CNN affiliate WVTM in Birmingham, Alabama, that the rockets were "near misses."

"I was looking out the window, a little small window, and I saw a shell or something," Shelby said in a phone interview from Amman, where the plane landed safely. "And then I see a flare. Our plane started maneuvering and changing directions and shaking all around."

The flares are part of the missile avoidance system aboard the C-130 aircraft. Heat from the flares distract rockets that have heat-seeking guidance systems.

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The Israelis developed the use of flares to defeat the guidance system in heat seeking rockets. It is a clever low tech low cost solution that has been very effective. Researchers are working on some high tech solutions to insulate the area around engines that heat up and attract the missiles. NASA has developed aerogel as an invisible protection. This picture shows matches being protected from a blowtorch. Nifty stuff if they can make it stick together.