Timestamp 0:58 is very revealing and instructive. That is when the missile made its appearance.
- Speed is life in air combat, so it is not unusual for the pilot to engage AB. He was not wrong in this situation. Yes, he could have reduce engine setting to reduce his IR intensity, then execute a dive in order to preserve speed. But it is difficult to second guess what happened.
- The rate of flare release, in my opinion, is what killed him. The rate of release falls under tactics. Timestamp 0:57.
Flares burns at several times the intensity of jet engines even when the engines are at full AB. However, flares have different behaviors than a jet and that is where modern IR sensors can defeat flares.
A discharged flare is gravity driven. That means it has only one direction -- down. It does have forward momentum but its main behavior -- down -- will be discerning to the modern IR sensor. The ideal flare release rate is about .1 sec or less and the desire flare release pattern is a cluster.
A single flare WILL burn with an intensity that is much higher than a jet engine in full AB. But as the jet travels away from the flare, the IR sensor computer can detect the trajectory difference and correctly deduce the lower IR intensity to be the aircraft and refuse to be misled. So the closer the flare release rate, the higher the odds that a cluster of flares will be sufficient to cover the jet's escape heading, even if the jet is in full AB.
An IR sensor is passive. That is both a threat and a weakness. It is a threat in that an IR missile cannot be detected. It is a weakness in that the IR missile have no target information until there is an IR source within its line-of-sight ( LOS ). We defeat that weakness by either not being within its LOS or overwhelms its sensor view.
The problem with the flare release rate is that if the flares are released too far apart from each other, the IR sensor computer can actually discriminate the flares from the aircraft base upon LOS ranges and rate of changes. It can tell -- based upon IR sources travels -- which is the flare and which is aircraft. Hence, the need to have discharged flares to be within .1 sec or less of each other.
