Boomerang (countermeasure)

Have you ever played catch with a boomerang? It's a special kind of toy that you can throw in the air, and it will come back to you. But did you know that boomerangs can also be used to protect planes or boats from bad guys who want to hurt them?

Here's how it works: when people want to hurt a plane or boat, they usually shoot missiles at it. But we can use a special kind of boomerang called a "countermeasure" to stop those missiles from hitting the plane or boat.

The countermeasure is a little device that can tell when a missile is coming and it launches a boomerang into the air. That boomerang is sometimes called a "flare," and it's designed to look like the plane or boat that the bad guys are trying to hurt.

When the missile is coming, the flare boomerang gets thrown in the air and it's shaped like the plane or boat. So the bad guys think they hit their target, but really they just hit the flare boomerang instead. This saves the plane or boat from getting hurt.

So, that's how a boomerang countermeasure works. It's like playing catch with a boomerang, but instead of having fun, it's protecting planes and boats from bad guys.