Talk:Chaff (radar countermeasure)

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This excellent article, like others in Wikipedia and books (e.g. "Laurels for Priz Witgenstein", W.P.Roell, 1994), makes no mention of one fact: at least some Window wasn't just strips of aluminium foil - the back of the strip was matt black. I'm basing this on direct experience: during WWII in the greater London area, in the mornings we would find Window on the streets. Or was it Chaff, or even Düppel? My recollection is that the strips were maybe 10 inches long, so they may have been from RAF or USAAF aircraft training flights (the German radars used 50cm wavelength, right?).

But we know the Luftwaffe used Düppel over London after the Hamburg firestorm. Does anyone know if the matt black backed foil was Düppel, or could it have been Window or Chaff? And what would the purpose have been? Clearly the strips would only reflect from the shiny side, but they twisted and tumbled as they fell. Was this a means of further confusing the radar returns? Edetic 04:23, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

I believe the matt side is indeed, as you say, to further confuse the radar system. To take the analogy of lights that I've seen used, the aircraft is one light in the middle, say, and the chaff is a number of other lights. Your light gets lost in the middle, which is the principle of countermeasures. Now, if we have one side matt, it's going to be like everyone with those other lights not just holding them, but turning them on and off very fast. I'd bet you'd be a lot more confused in that situation than the former. And the Wuerzburg radar had a wavelength of 53cm, so your guess was very close! I'm pretty sure the U.S. chaff was purely metallic, and the same for Düppel. Therefore, perhaps it was Window? Could have been something that wasn't that widespread. A trial, if you like. Dancraggs 01:29, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Hello all. Excellent page. I believe the answer may lie here: [1] in the obituary of Joan Curran to which I have attached a link, where R.V. Jones explains that aluminised paper was used - with the added advantage that printed propaganda could be printed on the reverse! James Curran (talk) 13:11, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Linked from "Window" disambiguation page

There was no link from there to here, so I added one. Graldensblud 00:37, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Falklands War

I suggest that we replace this section with an overall topic on naval use of chaff. The U.S. Navy also used chaff during Operation Praying Mantis, so both occurances can be included, as well as any other examples we can bring up Masterblooregard 17:00, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

That sounds fine to me. However, I think the Falklands war deserves special mention because the sinking of HMS Sheffield by an Exocet is the event that caused both the UK and the US to embark on major programs to reduce the RCS of their ships so that chaff could be effective. The Exocet is particularly insensitive to chaff compared to other anti-ship missiles of the time. -Amatulic 17:44, 1 October 2007 (UTC)