Who said anything about towing?
I was suggesting a self-propelled decoy, that could run parralel to the ship, landward. NOT TOWED.
If it was only 50 meters from the ship, and the missile was travelling at 500 mph, it couldn't possibly have hopped the decoy (which it wouldn't have done anyway), and still hit the ship.
You people need to put on your thinking caps.
Um, and how exactly do you propose to match the IR signature of a real ship, without building what is essentially a second ship?
You need to learn about missile flight profiles.
BTW, do you have any idea what a 3" thick piece of steel, the full length of the ship, and tall enough to defeat a pop-up missile weighs? What are you going to propel it with? Who is going to drive it? What happens to it in heavy seas? High winds? What is to stop a smart-aleck from sneaking a zodiak loaded up with explosives up next to it, and then zipping around it and WHAM?
And what is to stop a missile from coming straight down, as one of these missiles did? You do realize that missiles have adjustable flight profiles, right?
You should think about removing the tinfoil cap.