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By: - 4th July 2013 at 10:14 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
At this point, the most logical approach for A2A Missile defense approach would be DEW's. Given that programs are up and running for this very purpose (short range defense against incoming missiles).
By: - 4th July 2013 at 13:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
At this point, the most logical approach for A2A Missile defense approach would be DEW's.The main achilles heel is the limited amount of targets the system can engage at any given moment. Lets just say it will be good enough to destroy an incoming AA missile, the simple solution is to fire two at the target. If the system can take care of two missiles, fire three.
Carrying anti AAM would offer better capabilities vs multiple incoming threats, and in a small package the numbers could be sufficient.
Where it eventuelly will go is for the future to tell. Research is being carried out in both fields.
By: - 4th July 2013 at 19:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
In theory, yes you could use an air-to-air missile to intercept an enemy air-to-air missile. The only system I know to claim this capability is the German IRIS-T. But I am not aware of any trials having been flown to demonstrate this. It may be simply be something they have tried in simulations.
Assuming that you mean the RIM-166 Rolling Airframe Missile, RAM is not 1/12 the weight of a Sidewinder. RAM weighs around 70-75 kg, not that much less than the c.85 kg of an AIM-9. And its airframe was built to cope with surface-launch conditions. You would probably have to redesign it from nose to tail to cope with fast-jet carriage conditions.
Weapons such as APKWS are unlikely to have manoeuvrability needed for the air-to-air role. They are essentially course-correcting rockets that can adjust their trajectory for high accuracy and attack moving targets is the class of ground vehicles and fast inshore attack craft.
By: - 5th July 2013 at 18:45 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The main achilles heel is the limited amount of targets the system can engage at any given moment. L
I would have thought electrical power generation would be one of the biggest issues. Anyone? Merc?
By: - 6th July 2013 at 06:38 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The point of any defensive system against incoming air to air missiles, is probably going to be aimed at defending against a few missiles. The eventual goal being to defend against one or two missiles and kill the fighter in the mean time. If you are having to dodge multiple missiles (3,4 or more) then their is something wrong with your fighter, the pilot, or the tactics....The more missiles you launch to kill other missiles, the less you have to shoot down the enemy. With DEW's you have a defense against very large amount of missiles, but i guess the amount of simultaneous targets depends upon the power of the laser, and the number of turrets, needless to say the first gen of DEW's (products of the ABC program) would most likely shoot down one target at a time. Even if the opponent air force has to account for 2 or more missiles just to get past your DEW defenses this halves the amount of kills it can get with existing hardware, and throws a wrench at his war planning and execution.
I think why this topic (shooting missiles with missiles) has not been given much thought is because it is heck of an inefficient way to manage air campaigns, better to maintain superiority over a potential enemy in RCS, speed, ISR, weaponry and improve your kill ratios from there..rather then plan to trade missiles for missiles :-)...Defensive capability would always have to be balanced with offensive capability, so seriously doubt that any air force would carry 2-3 specialized missiles just to shoot down other missies, especially with 5th gen where weapon bay real estate is at a premium.
@ DAVID, Programs like HELLADS and ABC are targeted towards developing DEW solutions for bombers and fighters, within the power, cooling and weight constraints of the respective platforms. I think getting an offensive Laser onboard a bomber, while still trying to balance space/size with other weapons is going to be as big a challenge as fitting a defensive laser onto a tactical fighter (f-35).
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By: Sanem - 3rd July 2013 at 15:47
here's a question, would it be possible for fighter aircraft to shoot down incomming enemy air-to-air (and ground-to-air) missiles with their own missiles?
seeing how modern and near future warfare is to be based mainly on long range missile duels, this would give any user a huge advatage as you can just trade missiles
especially if you use lighter, cheaper short ranged missiles
is there a technical reason why this couldn't work? as I understand it missiles are not designed for stealth or avoiding enemy attacks, which should make them easy enough to detect at range (using radar or IRST) and target them
the RAM would perfect for this, as it is already designed to target incoming cruise missiles, and you can carry 12 for the weight of one Sidewinder
although they cost about the same ($500.000), which is weird considering the Sidewinder is a much bigger and longer-ranged missile
a APKWS style missile seems especially interesting
$28.500
2-4 km range compared to 9 km and 35 km for the RAM and Sidewinder
meaning you can have 20 APKWS for the price of one RAM or Sidewinder, giving you a lot more shots, if at a shorter range
also, would it be possible to use a laser to guide the APKWS to enemy missiles (or enemy fighters for that fact)?
we've seen that lasers are now capable of tracking a missile and shooting it down, so tracking a missile to guide a APKWS shouldn't be that hard
and if you put a spread charge into the missile, and use the laser to measure the distance so you can detonate when it gets close to the APKWS, there's no way the enemy missile could avoid the blast, even if you don't get a direct hit