摘要 |
There is provided an autonomous off-board defensive aids system (100) for use with a host craft (102), for example, with combat aircraft or submarines. More particularly, the host craft (102) deploys a plurality of controllable off-board units (104, 106) to counter an offensive threat or to engage in autonomous offensive actions. The controllable off-board units (104, 106) implement active stealth facilities: each off-board unit (104, 106) having a receiver unit for detecting impinging detection pulses, for example radar or sonar pulses, and a transmitter unit for generating an artificial detection pulse profile, for example "spoofing" or masking the presence of the host craft. The controllable off-board units are of two types: tethered (104) and free moving (106). The off-board units (104, 106) can have conventional propulsion apparatus, for instance, propellers, rockets or jets. Off-board units (104, 106) each have control apparatus which allows the off-board units (104, 106) to co-operate. General commands are conveyed to the control apparatus by control cabling provided in the tether cable (108).
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