Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
And of course ten units don't make an air defence network...
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Well, thats the thing:
NATO on the whole doesn't go for networked defense. Thats a Russian thing.
Russians (Or Soviets to be accurate) came up with the whole, for a lack of a better term, Zone Defense strategy using a broad spectrum of guns and missiles of various capabilities, each of which supported the other with the mission of making the air above the battlespace a no fly zone, even for themselves, as they clearly stated that it was impossible for air defense to do a adequate job of preventing friendly fire. As to how well it works, ask the Israeli's, there is a reason that they don't have very many aircraft that predate 1973. And that was a Arab manned Soviet Air Defense Net (Again, I'll grant that there was more than a few "advisors" present). One guy I know whose job was to simulate russian air defense nets in a opfor role for the airforce likened it to a arial no-mans land mentality from the first world war. He was somewhat known for the nastiness he could achieve with the lowly SA2 - everyone he said always looked out for the newer, better, stuff. Spent all the time countering it: By the time they did so, the telephone poles have snuck through is how he put it - Too stupid and primitive to be vulnerable to current ECM.
We never felt much need for the same: NATO Air Forces was assumed to have total domination of the air, at worst, the soviets might achieve local air neutrality. Because of this, the doctrine was for Point Air Defense, where a handful of vehicles, sent to the most vulnerable point.