What is Rafale fighter jet's X-Guard, which Indian Air Force may have used to trick Pakistan during Operation Sindoor

Ryan Bodenheimer, a former United States Air Force fighter pilot who is now a military tech digital creator, claimed that the Indian Air Force's Rafale fighter jets may have deployed their X-Guard as a decoy during the recent military conflict with Pakistan, Operation Sindoor.

 

This AI-enabled, fibre-optic towed X-Guard decoy system is designed to mislead enemy radars and missiles. 

 

X-Guard is a highly advanced, lightweight, reusable towed decoy towed behind the aircraft. Integrated with the fighter aircraft’s Electronic Warfare (EW)  suite, X-Guard provides high-value active protection that defeats the most sophisticated radars, drastically increasing the survivability and mission success probability of the fighter aircraft in enemy terrains.

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The high ERP (effective radiated power) solid state antenna array defeats advanced tracking radars, including Monopulse and Lobe-On-Receive-Only (LORO) radar types, and counters radar–guided air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles.

 

Deployed either when the fighter jets approach a threatened area or upon detection of an imminent threat, X-Guard is retractable in flight using an advanced reel-out/reel-in mechanism. It can be deployed swiftly by the fighter pilot and does not really affect the manoeuvrability of the aircraft while deployed.

 

Upon completion of the mission, it is stowed inside the pod on the aircraft. 

 

X-Guard maintains both electrical and fibre-optic continuity throughout the flight.

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