a method for creating coherent masses of burning matter for countermeasures purposes such as for protecting an aircraft and other vehicles from infrared “ heat seeking ” hostile missiles and also from high power laser beams and laser radar . one or more spurious sources of radiation are created controllably in the general vicinity of the aircraft being protected ; in missile countermeasures , each of these spurious sources is capable of emitting infrared energy comparable in wave length and at a higher intensity than that emitted by the target aircraft itself such that the hostile missile will be decoyed away from its intended target by the spurious radiation sources . in this method , the spurious source of radiation is created by igniting a small amount of aircraft fuel that is gelled and controllably ejected from the aircraft . protection against laser weapons and radar is provided by interposing the burning mass of matter in the laser beam so that combusion products in the burning mass serve to degrade beam power . apparatus for practicing the method is disclosed comprising means for withdrawing a small quantity of fuel from the aircraft fuel tank , means for adding a gelling agent to the quantity of fuel , and means for simultaneously igniting and ejecting the quantity of gelled fuel such that a persistent source of radiant energy that can be used for decoy purposes and attenuating laser beams is produced .