The Philippine Navy (PN) said Tuesday, March 28, that it has successfully tested their newly-acquired Bullfighter chaff decoy, its latest countermeasure against anti-ship missiles.

Capt. Benjo Negranza, director of PN’s naval public affairs office, said the Bullfighter is a “new generation of 130 mm decoys for Super Rapid Blooming Offboard Chaffs (SRBOC) and other 130 mm launcher systems to protect naval vessels up to the size of frigates against anti-ship missiles.”

The Bullfighter was tested by the PN’s Offshore Combat Force onboard the two Rizal-class frigates, BRP Jose Rizal (FF150) and BRP Antonio Luna (FF151), in the vicinity of the waters off Zambales last March 24.

“The payload of the chaffs is effective against missiles with modern and sophisticated seekers and electronic protection measure,” Negranza said.

Accordingly, chaff is a radar countermeasure where a particular target “confuses” and “distracts” guided missiles by spreading a cloud of small and thin pieces of aluminum, metalized glass fiber, or plastic. These objects appear as a cluster of primary targets on radar screens, thus, distracting the radar-guided missiles.

The acquisition of the Bullfighter chaff countermeasure was part of the second horizon of the Navy’s modernization program “to capacitate our warships to defend against modern naval warfare threats,” Negranza said.