Royal Navy decoy flares light up the Caribbean

Ships in the Caribbean have been treated to an impromptu daytime firework display as the Lynx helicopter of RFA Lyme Bay tested her defences.

The Royal Navy helicopter fired their Infra-Red Countermeasures – better known as flares – over waters off Grand Cayman during a training flight for the 180-knot aircraft.

Flares are intended to decoy incoming heat-seeking missiles by drawing them away from the Lynx’s engines on to a much hotter target.

The firing was part of a number of sorties for the flight which included a practice shoot for the sniper team, a chance to test the defensive flares and a rehearsal of the ship’s use of smoke flame floats.

These are dropped into the ship’s wake when the helicopter makes a radar-controlled approach in very low visibility.

The helicopter is being used principally in the fight against trafficking in the region, tracking, chasing and, if necessary, stopping ‘go-fast’ boats used bydrug-runners – but can provide assistance in disaster relief by ferryingequipment and people to hurricane-hit areas