The Drop,
Generally speaking, portable short range Anti Air Missiles tend to be heat seeking, meaning the missile itself has a sensitive seeker head which locks onto a heat source and guides the missile towards it.
The primary detection of the aircraft is visually by the operator and the subsequent guidance relies on the infrared signature of the target. Being passive systems which do not actively transmit any signal towards the target, there is no signal to be directly jammed. The three defences (simplified) are to reduce the signature of the aircraft, hide the aircraft or to seduce the missile away.
The above is obviously a massive simplification of the world of countermeasures, but hope this clarifies why blinder could not help!
Obs cop
Last edited by Obs cop; 18th August 2003 at 05:07.