IR guidance weapons, especially IR imaging guidance weapons, has brought great threat to modern aircraft. Airborne surface-type IR decoy is an effective countermeasure to jamming IR imaging guidance weapons. By analyzing the principle and disadvantage of IR imaging guidance, the jamming mechanism and efficiency index of airborne surface-type IR decoy were researched. The active weapons of airborne surface-type IR decoys was summarized. The recent research and manufacturing technology of airborne surface-type IR decoys, including pyrophoric foil IR decoy and pyrophoric liquid IR decoy, were also introduced. The present research condition of IR decoys′ jamming effectiveness was summarized in the respects of experimental research, simulation research, simulated images, jamming strategy and so on. Finally, a simulation project on the jamming effectiveness of the IR decoy based on exploratory analysis was brought out, which can give the jamming strategy with the integration of the different elements.