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Gripen E's BOL system

BOL: Giving Gripen Pilots Sustained Defensive Capability

2 min read

Have you ever wondered what goes behind the gleaming flares that Gripen dispenses during airshows? It is advanced systems like BOL, a high capacity countermeasure dispenser that is responsible for flares. Read on to know more about BOL.

First, a little bit about flares. A flare or a decoy flare is used by a fighter aircraft to counter or distract a heat-seeking infra-red (IR) guided missile. Once the pilot senses the presence an IR missile, flares are released, and the missile starts tracking the flare and not its source, which, by this time, has pulled away and reduced engine power to reduce its thermal signature.

IR technology is getting better with time, owing to new IR materials and methods of tactical deployment. Saab’s BOL features non-pyrotechnic release mechanism and effective dispersion which allows covert dispensing of a special material that has proved highly effective against advanced IR missiles.

BOL’s high capacity dispensers give pilots an edge over others during a live mission. Its airscoops and vortex fields (behind the aircraft), used with advanced IR payloads, make the air-stream rapidly build up a large radiating IR decoy cloud. Rapid dispersion helps decoy the most advanced IR missiles.

BOL can easily be fitted to both new and existing aircraft. It has an elongated shape which allows for easy installation in elongated cavities of the aircraft structure, missile launchers and pylons.

To know more about BOL, click here.