ITC/USA 2009 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fifth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2009 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Efforts are underway to develop Infrared countermeasure (IRCM) systems to defend aircraft against IR guided surface-to-air (SAM) and air-to-air (AAM) missiles. One such system is the Large Aircraft Infrared Counter Measure (LAIRCM) which employs temporal, spatial, and spectral missile warning techniques. There is no current technique however, for installed system flight testing of such countermeasures in a realistic temporal, spatial, and spectral environment. This paper is an introduction to the Towed Airborne Plume Simulator (TAPS), a system designed to address this test shortfall. The TAPS operational concept is described as well as techniques for simulating missile signatures.