Why do military planes always pop flares after doing a run

Question

Why do military planes always pop flares after doing a run

In: 0

Answer 1

In an active warzone where you’re fighting an enemy known to have anti air weapons, that knows you have ground attack aircraft, there’s a pretty good chance that by the time you’ve finished flying in a straight line long enough to make your attack, *somebody* on the other side has launched something at you, whether you’ve detected it or not.

So it’s a pretty good idea to pop flares as you pull away to confuse whatever might be homing in on your tailpipe.