Chaff is an electronic countermeasure technology used by militaries worldwide to protect naval ships, aircraft or other sensitive targets from radar and radio frequency guiding mechanisms of the enemy missile.
Pune and Jodhpur-based facilities of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have jointly developed an advanced chaff technology to safeguard fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) from enemy radar threats.
Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur, and High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), Pune, have developed the chaff cartridge meeting qualitative requirements of IAF, the DRDO said on Thursday. “The Indian Air Force has started the process of induction of this technology after completion of successful user trials,” a statement from the Ministry of Defence said.
A chaff is primarily an electronic counter-measure technology used by militaries worldwide to protect high-value targets such as fighter jets or naval ships from radars and radio frequency (RF) guiding mechanisms of the enemy missiles. The chaff deployed in the air reflect as multiple targets for the missile guidance systems, thus misleading the enemy radars or deflecting adversary missiles.
The MoD press statement said, “In today’s electronic warfare, survivability of fighter aircraft is of prime concern because of advancement in modern radar threats. To ensure survivability of aircraft, Counter Measure Dispensing System (CMDS) is used which provides passive jamming against infra-red and radar threats. Chaff is a critical defence technology used to protect fighter aircraft from hostile radar threats. The importance of this technology lies in the fact that very less quantity of chaff material deployed in the air acts as decoy to deflect enemy’s missiles for ensuring safety of the fighter aircraft. The technology has been given to the industry for production in large quantities to meet the annual rolling requirement of the Indian Air Force.”
“Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has lauded DRDO, IAF and the industry for indigenous development of this critical technology, terming it as one more step of DRDO towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in strategic defence technologies. Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO Dr G Satheesh Reddy congratulated the teams associated with the successful development of this advanced technology that will further strengthen the Indian Air Force,” it added.
