Destruction is not the only way. You can also deceive and exhaust the defence:
- Decoys such as the ADM-160 MALD (Miniature Air-Launched Decoy) mimic the radar signature of a real aircraft. They make SAM systems light up, force radars to transmit (thereby revealing their positions to waiting ARMs), and draw expensive missiles onto false targets.
- The jammer variant MALD-J combines decoy and jammer: it flies along as a lure and jams at the same time.
- Towed decoys (decoys towed behind an aircraft) pull radar-guided missiles away from the aircraft.
- Saturation: present so many targets — real and fake — at the same time that the system and its operators become overloaded and have to make choices.
Decoys shift the fight from “destruction” to economics: you make the defender waste expensive missiles and valuable emission time, while you sacrifice cheap decoys.