missiles work with radar signature or heat signature, not the visible spectrum. and yes, there are countermeasures available to 'blind' an IR sensor (like those used on short range A/A missiles)
Right, I know that you’d want to use radar for longer distances, but if the towed decoy is meant to appear as a juicy target, to take a hit for the fighter, couldn’t you just follow it until you’re in close range, and then switch to a better discriminating sensor (visible light camera in my example) to hit the jet instead?
