"A decoy drone being developed through an $88 million, five-year demonstration project will feature stealth in reverse," the Associated Press reports. The hope is "that enemy anti-aircraft batteries will target it and reveal their position."
Instead of trying to evade radar like a stealth fighter or bomber does, the decoy only 9 feet long and weighing 200 pounds will use electronic signals to project a larger-than-life image.
The Miniature Air Launched Decoy, of MALD, is intended to fool enemy radar operators into believing it is a real airplane, say engineers with the Air Armament Center at this Florida Panhandle base.
The ruse is designed to prompt an enemy response that may include turning on radars that guide anti-aircraft artillery and missiles. U.S. warplanes trailing the drones then could fire missiles that home in on such radars to knock out the air defenses.
THERE'S MORE: "Stealth is reverse" is an old, old tactic, notes Defense Tech pal Wyatt Earp. The Brits, the Israelis, and the Americans have done it for years.
