January 14, 2025: Italian defense firm Leonardo recently developed BriteStorm, a more capable disposable air-launched decoy to protect aircraft from enemy aerial and ground based air defenses. In 2013 Leonardo put BriteCloud on the market. This battery powered decoy weighs one kilogram and fits into standard aircraft 55mm countermeasure dispensers. Some reprogramming of the aircraft fire control software allows pilots to manually release BriteCloud or have it done automatically when a threat is detected by the aircraft sensors. American and British aircraft have already adopted BriteCloud for use on Typhoon and F-16 aircraft as well as MQ-9 Predator drones.

BriteStorm not only updates BriteCloud’s capabilities but makes them more useful while adding new capabilities like creating the electronic illusion that the decoy is one or more real aircraft. This makes BriteStorm useful for suppressing and destroying enemy air defenses. BriteStorm is capable of quickly adapting to enemy systems that change frequencies during operation.

BriteCloud and BriteStorm are an upgrade but not a replacement for the earlier American Mald series of decoys. The MALD stands for Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, the most recent version is MALD-N, a powered disposable decoy that can broadcast signals imitating various radars and do so while networked. That’s what the N stands for. MALD-N can be networked with other MALD-Ns as well as manned aircraft. This enables all the MALD-Ns in a swarm to automatically share information and quickly make changes to maintain the maximum confusion for enemy radars. There’s a pilot or system operator monitoring all this and able to intervene if needed. The MALD-N is a variant of the 2012 MALD-J, the first jammer version of MALD.

The original ADM-160B MALD finally passed acceptance tests in 2009 and the air force agreed to buy it. MALD is a 115 kg powered decoy with a range of 900 kilometers and speed comparable with the cruise speed of several types of manned warplanes. MALD appears on the enemy radar as a warplane. MALD itself is a torpedo-shaped object that is about half the size of a Tomahawk cruise missile. MALD operates on the same principle as Tomahawk. When launched short wings pop out and a small jet engine starts. MALD deceives enemy radars with electronics that can generate signals that make MALD appear to be one of several actual warplanes. MALD is preprogrammed to fly a specific route with its electronic radar transmitter programmed to emit signals making the tiny MALD appear like a larger aircraft on the enemy radar.

It took fourteen years of sometimes wasted effort on earlier designs to finally get a MALD that worked effectively and reliably. All that extra work made it clear that MALD would be even more effective if it included active broadcasting jammers and work on MALD-J began in 2008, just as MALD was almost ready for mass production. MALD-J was ready in 2012. The jammer version was found to be even more effective. Since 2011 over 2,000 MALDs have been delivered or are on order. A thousand of these were in service by 2014. MALD was used successfully in Ukraine to protect guided bombs from Russian air defenses.

Initially, only the B-52, F-18, and F-16 were equipped to carry MALD. Over the years large UAVs and maritime patrol aircraft have been equipped to carry MALD. The navy operates MALD-J from F-18Es, which accompany EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft and is now equipping the new F-35. The EA-18G could carry MALD-J but this would be at the expense of range. The EA-18G needs as much range as it can get in order to go deep into enemy air space and destroy air defenses. The MALD manufacturer has also developed the needed equipment, like special racks so that up to 192 MALDs can be loaded on military transports and quickly launched.

MALD soon replaced the similar U.S. Navy jet-powered ADM-141C ITALD or Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy, which entered service about the time MALD entered development. ITALD is 2.34 meters long with a 1.55 meter wingspan. It weighs 180 kg (400 pounds), has a top speed of 460 kilometers an hour, and a range of about 300 kilometers. ITALD, as well as the earlier 59 kg unpowered TALD, contains passive and active devices to enhance the radar image the enemy will receive when they spot the decoy. The navy bought about 200 ITALDs. In the late 1980s, the navy bought over 2,000 ADM-141 TALDs, which proved successful during the 1991 Gulf War. Israel also had success in combat with their version of TALD, which was developed from similar decoys designed in the 1970s based on Israeli and U.S. Navy experience with Russian-equipped Arab air defense systems. The U.S. Air Force didn't get interested until after the Cold War ended and that led to MALD. TALD was basically an updated version of the Israeli Samson, which the navy bought 500 of in the late 1980s and early 1990s as TALD and these were the ones used successfully in 1991 against Iraq.

The MALD is three meters long and its pop-out wings give it a 1.55 meter wingspan. The current versions weigh 130 kg and are powered by a small turbojet engine that gives it a speed of up to 1,000 kilometers an hour, for 45 minutes, at 11,000 meters, or 20 minutes at 1,000 meters. It can be programmed to fly a specific course to try and get enemy air defenses to open up so the enemy weapons can be spotted and destroyed. MALDs are also designed to be used in swarms to overwhelm enemy air defenses. The new MALDs cost nearly $300,000 each. The MALD-J is more expensive and about five percent heavier. The MALD-J was so successful in tests that the air force initially converted 200 of its MALDs to MALD-J.

Early on the MALD was supposed to be a 15 percent smaller, simpler, and cheaper at $30,000 each design. But, as is common with these projects, both the air force and the manufacturer kept coming up with new things the MALD had to have. Some were necessary while others were just part of the usual procurement politics. The current MALD has a range of nearly 900 kilometers and is reliable enough to be used in combat. The radar jamming capability of MALD-J was the first of many electronic warfare capabilities added to the higher-priced, at up to half a million dollars, or more, each version of MALD. MALD-X has almost completed development and contains more interchangeable modules, each performing a different EW or Electronic Warfare task. Thus the air force has pulled ahead in aerial decoy technology, although only the TALD/ITALD series has the distinction of having been tested, and successful, in combat.