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Down-under technicians team with U.S., British counterparts for sea-skimmer countermeasures.
A hovering lightweight rocket-propelled decoy offers even small ships standalone all-weather protection against radar-guided missiles. The fire-and-forget device is designed to meet any currently available missile threat and can serve as part of a multilayered fleet protection system.
The active decoy, invented largely by Australian scientists, was developed jointly with U.S. experts and is being built by the subsidiary of a British company. It is equipping the U.S., Canadian and Royal Australian navies, and it is being offered to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Known as the Nulka antiship missile decoy system, the device employs a unique lightweight hovering rocket to place itself at a certain point between its home ship and an antiship missile to lead the attacker astray. It is effective against air- or surface-launched missiles, including sea-skimmers that ordinarily are lost in ocean clutter until the terminal phase of attack.
The tube-launched decoys are small-68 kilograms (150 pounds) in weight, 2.1 meters (82 inches) in length and 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) in diameter-and they provide ship selfdefense against radar-guided missiles. While Nulka decoys can take part in a multilayered defense system, they alone do not provide area defense.
Built by British Aerospace Australia, Salisbury, South Australia, Nulka takes its name from the Australian Aborigine word for "be quick." It offers an advantage over other decoys in that it autonomously leads the missile astray, leaving the ship commander free to assume any course or position, according to Barry Murphy, managing director of British Aerospace Australia. The concept emerged from scientists at the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organization, who focused on using a decoy that acted like a ship to attract missiles away from the protected vessel. This approach would counter any discriminating features in missile targeting systems.
These Australian experts developed the hovering rocket and flight control system concepts, with which they approached the U.S. Navy to establish a teaming arrangement. The actual device was developed in a joint Australian/U.S. program with U.S. scientists in charge of the decoy's electronic warfare payload. British Aerospace was selected in a competitive contract to produce the system.
In 1996, the Royal Australian Navy purchased Nulka fire control systems and launchers under...