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Originally Posted by Raellus
Back in the day...
I'm just surprised that the US Army didn't see a need for a fast-moving*, mobile AAA platform during the last few years of the Cold War. At that time, the Soviets were spinning up their new Mi-28 Havok and Ka-50 Hokum attack helicopters, both of which posed a threat to US armor (especially when it was on the attack). This would have been the perfect excuse for the US Army to request a new SPAAG. Perhaps the expensive boondoggle of the Sgt. York program soured all involved on SPAAGs.
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There's only so much money Big Army can throw at any system and each dime was fought tooth and nail at the Pentagram. Succeed and the colonels
get stars and then cushy gigs w/ the various beltway bandits that masquerade as defense contractors. Fail... well they work for contractors so it's all good
If we decide that Big Army decided to get its head out of their proverbial ass and recite the ADA holy mantra of having a gun/missile mix and SHORAD is not the destruction but to preserve the assets of the brigades and battalions from enemy air attack. In which case even damaging enemy fixed wing and rotary platforms or making said individuals piss off for greener pastures is just as good as turning them into fireballs and greasy stains (virtual attrition is a thing but Congresspeople do not understand that)
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Today...
Drones are becoming a pervasive feature of the modern battlefield, and are already in use as improvised AT weapons (either in suicide attack mode or dropping bombs on AFVs' thinner top armor). In my mind, this brings back the need for SPAAGs. I imagine a Vulcan canon would make short work of most low-flying drones. However, once drone swarms start arriving over the battlefield...
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Keep in mind the sensors we have today did what folks wanted to do back in the 80s and 90s? Air cooled? Sure. Doppler tracking? You can do it w/ raspberry pi kit. Integrated into a network and able to share data w/ multiple platforms no matter if it's in the air or it floats? Yeah, we can do that sez Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, and Lockmart.
Even a cheap gun type system like the Blazer (in retrospect the mil designation would have been something M10xx but GDW didn't know that or thought Big Army would have gone back to cover the M700 series) fitted w/ those tiny dinner plate AESA radars would have given tracking coverage at least out to 10 plus klicks/5 nautical miles depending on terrain and weather. And something like the ADATS w/ a 3D AESA radar while overkill against certain UAVs may end up as a limited coverage against tactical ballistic missiles given software and rocket motor mods.
Mad Mikec