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: Unlike the ground soldier, who has the advantage of concealment, terrain, and, fundamentally, ground beneath his feet, the job of a seaman at war is full of hazards. With danger lurking beneath, threats that would merely slow down the ground combatant—such as guided missiles—are much greater to the naval combatant.

In order to counter the threats posed, sea fighters have to perform multiple tasks. They have to either avoid being hit by anti-ship missiles, destroy the anti-ship missiles, or have in place active defence systems capable of deceiving or destroying the anti-ship missiles and subsequently launching their own counter attack.

Defence analysts recall the early days of the Gulf war in 1990s when Scud missiles fired by Iraq on Kuwait and Israel used to be brought down by the US led forces by firing Patriot missiles in multiple successions. But that used to be a ground-to-air combat. Out there in the vast seas, anti-ship missiles are the bane of the modern navies. With capabilities such as multi-spectral seekers, which combine infrared (IR) sensors with phased-array radars, anti-ship missiles are placing even greater demands on ship defences.

In order to overcome this, modern navies have spent thousands, if not millions of man-years considering and responding to the threat of anti-ship missiles since World War II. Thankfully, the multiple, layered, computerised, active defence systems that they field aboard their ships are proving to be extremely effective against almost all anti-ship missiles.

As the Indian Navy gears up for the future, it is considering such special capabilities for special missions. High on their consideration list is the Nulka Active Missile Decoy, a rocket-propelled active decoy designed to lure anti-ship missiles away from their intended targets. Developed by Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems, the system employs a broadband radio frequency repeater mounted atop a hovering rocket platform.

Here’s how the system works. After launch, the Nulka decoy radiates a large, ship-like radar cross section while flying a trajectory that seduces and decoys incoming anti-ship missiles away from their intended targets. The decoy is an autonomous flight vehicle, capable of operating over a wide range of environments and of positioning the payload with a high level of accuracy. It employs the hovering rocket principle and uses a solid state microprocessor autopilot and thrust vector control.