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Effective air defense is based on an
integrated and coordinated approach including airborne (AEW or
tethered radars), active and passive ground based sensors (radar,
IR scanners, ESM), command centers and "shooters" of various
types. The air defense network usually includes the surveillance
and control of the protected airspace, projection of airpower for
air defense missions, wide area air defense at medium and high
altitude and site point air defense, covering medium and low altitudes.
Each of these elements utilizes typical weapon systems, sensors and
command and control facilities designed to meet the specific
environmental and tactical scenario.
This article will
cover the medium – low altitude point and area defense systems.
Wide area air defense systems will be covered in a future article.
The systems designed for medium and low level defenses, usually
referred to as point defense systems and SHOrt Range Air Defense
systems (SHORAD), employ various types of heat seeking, radar
guided and command to line of sight guided missiles, augmented by
rapid firing radar/EO directed automatic guns, for close-in
defense. During the 1970s, most SHORAD systems relied on
short-medium range, medium altitude Surface to Air Missile (SAM)
systems, such as the Russian SA-3, and SA-6, US Hawk and Chaparral
and the Franco – German Roland and Crotale Surface to Air
Missiles.
The low altitude defense of mobile forces was maintained
by manual or radar directed guns, which were later improved with
the introduction of radar directed guns such as the Russian
ZSU-23/4 (Shilka) 23mm quad automatic Self Propelled Anti-Aircraft
(SPAA) gun, US M-163 Vulcan that utilized the 6x20mm Gatling gun,
and the German Gepard 2x35mm SPAA. Protection of large area and
strategic sites was maintained by air defense guns such as the
Swiss Skyguard radar directed gun system and Russian 23, 37, 57
and 85mm guns. During the 1970s and 1980s, at the peak of the cold
war, the combination of guns and missiles evolved as means for the
protection of mobile forces in the battlefield. For the first
time, an effective multi-target engagement system was introduced,
utilizing an integrated defense concept, where guns, missiles and
radars of various types were mutually covering each other to
provide an effective air defense "umbrella". This concept was
later complemented by the evolution of high performance, compact
short range missiles, such as the Starstreak, Mistral,
Stinger in
the west and the SA-8 and SA-19 in the East. With these missiles,
advanced VSHORAD systems evolved during the late 1980s and 1990s,
offering means of autonomous escort for mobile forces, protecting
primarily from direct attack by attack helicopters and close air
support assets.
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