ADM-141 TALD and ADM-141C ITALD decoy missiles on display

The ADM-141A/B TALD was an American

decoy missile Dummies and decoys are fake military equipment that are intended to deceive the enemy. Dummies and decoys are only one aspect of military deception. Examples During World War II, dummy airfields and even towns were used in England to divert ...

originally built by

Brunswick Corporation Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Today, Brunswick has more than 13,000 employ ...

for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

and the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defens ...

. Later it transitioned to joint US/Israeli manufacture with Israeli Military Industries Advanced Systems Division (IMI-ASD). The Tactical Air Launched Decoy (TALD) was intended to confuse and saturate enemy

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

s, as part of an overall SEAD ( Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) strategy, thus allowing attacking aircraft and weapons a higher probability of penetrating to the target. The Improved TALD is a

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, a ...

-powered version.

History

In the 1970s, the

Brunswick Corp Brunswick Corporation, formerly known as the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, is an American corporation that has been developing, manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of products since 1845. Today, Brunswick has more than 13,000 employ ...

. developed several unpowered radar decoys, including the Samson, which was produced for the Israeli Air Force by

Israel Military Industries , former_name = Israel Military Industries , type = State-owned enterprise , industry = Arms industry , fate = Acquired by Elbit Systems , successor = Elbit Systems Land , founded = , founder = , defunct = , hq_location_city = Rama ...

(IMI) in the early 1980s. The Samson proved highly successful, prompting the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to purchase about 2000 of them during the mid to late 1980s. The first units entered US service in 1987; in 1985, Brunswick was asked to develop an improved Samson named TALD. The TALD was an expendable glide vehicle with a square fuselage, flip-out wings, and three tail control surfaces. A digital flight control system could be programmed to conduct various speed or maneuvering changes during flight. The missile could be launched from , at which height it had a range of up to ; a low-altitude range reduced this to .

Variants

The TALD was built in different versions.

ADM-141A

The ADM-141A has passive and active radar enhancers. An IR addon was fielded for a while, but was later withdrawn from service.

ADM-141B

The ADM-141B carries a 36 kg (80 lb) payload of

chaff Chaff (; ) is the dry, scaly protective casing of the seeds of cereal grains or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material (such as scaly parts of flowers or finely chopped straw). Chaff is indigestible by humans, but livestock can eat it. In agri ...

ADM-141C ITALD

The ADM-141C (ITALD) has the same passive and active radar enhancers as the ADM-141A TALD.

Operations

The TALD was used with great success in the opening stages of

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

in 1991, with the first being deployed in combat by Lt. Jeff Greer. More than 100 were launched on the opening night of the war. This prompted the Iraqi air defense to activate many of its

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

s, most of which were then destroyed by anti-radiation missiles. The Improved TALD is powered by a

Teledyne CAE Model 312 The Teledyne CAE J700 is a small turbojet engine designed to power unmanned air vehicles such as missiles. It was developed for and powers the ADM-141C ITALD air-launched decoy missile. Design and development In the early 1990s, Brunswick deve ...

(J700-CA-400)

. This boosted the range to more than at high altitude and at low altitude. This model was also capable of performing a flight profile resembling that of a real aircraft much more convincingly. Initially 20 TALDs were upgraded to ADM-141C ITALD configuration, with the first flight conducted in 1996. Since then the U.S. Navy has ordered over 200 ADM-141Cs. The major user of the ADM-141 is the

F/A-18 Hornet The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twin-engine, supersonic, carrier-capable, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (hence the F/A designation). Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now pa ...

. Up to 6 decoys can be carried on a single stores pylon, using a pair of triple ejector racks.

Specifications

* Length: 2.34 m (7 ft 8 in) * Wingspan: 1.55 m (5 ft 1 in) * Weight: 180 kg (400 lb) * Speed: up to Mach 0.8 (460 km/h, 250 kn) * Range: 126 km (78 mi), over 300 km (185 mi) for the ADM-141C * Propulsion: Teledyne CAE J700-CA-400 turbojet, 790 N (177 lbf) on ADM-141C only

References

Article source
Vectorsite's ''Unmanned Aerial Vehicles''
by Greg Goebel.