The AN/ALE-50 towed decoy system is an electronic countermeasure tool designed by

Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...

to protect multiple US military aircraft from air-to-air and surface-to-air radar-guided missiles. The AN/ALE-50 towed decoy system is an anti-missile countermeasures decoy system used on U.S.

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

, and

Marine Corps Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...

aircraft, and by certain non-United States air forces. The system is manufactured by

Space and Airborne Systems at its facility in

Goleta, California Goleta (; ; Spanish for "Schooner") is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 c ...

. The ALE-50 system consists of a launcher and launch controller installed on the aircraft (usually on a wing pylon), and one or more expendable towed

decoy A decoy (derived from the Dutch ''de'' ''kooi'', literally "the cage" or possibly ''ende kooi'', " duck cage") is usually a person, device, or event which resembles what an individual or a group might be looking for, but it is only meant to lu ...

s. Each decoy is delivered in a sealed canister and has a ten-year

shelf life Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or no longer on a ...

. When deployed, the decoy is towed behind the host aircraft, protecting the aircraft and its crew against RF-guided

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

s by luring the missile toward the decoy and away from the intended target. In both flight tests and actual combat, the ALE-50 has successfully countered numerous live firings of both surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles. U.S. military pilots have nicknamed the decoy "Little Buddy". The system requires no threat-specific software, and communicates its health and status to the aircraft over a standard data bus.

Operational history

The ALE-50 was first deployed in 1995, but is also used on the

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole fighter aircraft variants based on the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The F/A-18E single-seat and F/A-18F tandem-seat variants are larger and more ad ...

and the

B-1B Lancer The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It is commonly called the "Bone" (from "B-One"). It is one of three strategic bombers serving in the U.S. Air Force fleet along with ...

. The ALE-50 has also been integrated into the next-generation ALQ-184(V)9 ECM pod, creating an integrated threat-protection system that can be carried on a larger number of platforms. The ALE-50 expendable decoys' estimated value is $22,000 each. A production run of 1,048 units were delivered through October 2010. An additional 226 units of ALE-50 Bravo T3F launchers were produced for U.S. Navy F/A-18 E/F aircraft in September 2014. The ALE-50 towed decoy is currently operational on the F-16, F/A-18E/F, and B-1B aircraft with more than 25,000 deliveries.Raytheon Product Information Page
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References

Electronic countermeasures Electronic warfare equipment Military electronics of the United States Equipment of the United States Air Force Military technology Raytheon Company products Towed decoys Weapons countermeasures Military equipment introduced in the 1990s {{mil-aviation-stub