©Crown copyright, 2015 MOD News Licence 14082015A

If ever there was an illustration of the awesome power projected by the Royal Navy’s helicopters – this image is it. The Lynx helicopter from 815 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, lit up the night sky with her decoy flares as part of an exercise in the Indian Ocean.

Decoy flares – or Infra Red Counter Measures – attract heat-seeking missiles, drawing them away from the helicopter’s engines and onto a much hotter target.