My expertise is limited to Russian and a few European types. What do you reckon is the best all-round point-defence system / layered air-defence against fighters, cruise missiles, hijacked airliners, helicopters and any other potential hostile?
As biased as I am i favour of Russian SAM’s, I have always believed that the TOR-M1 (Gauntlet-C) and the 2SQ Tunguska (SA-12/19?) make the very best close-in defence of a stationary / semi-mobile target. I would also have added the 4×4 truck-mounted Mistral-ALAMO VSHORAD air-defence system with Skyguard radar.
I also have faith in Spada Aspide-2000, but very little information is available on the capacity and one-shot kill probability of this SAM.
I have very little faith in both Rapier, Crotale and the SA-8, and think that are largely obsolete, and more attention should be given to Roland, Starstreak and Gauntlet.
MANPADS is another issue. My greatest belief lies in Mistral and SA-18 Igla-II. I don’t know much about Stinger series.
From what I’ve heard, the next-generation of MANPADS will be digital infra-red imaging, as opposed to zero-error seeking, and will thus render all forms of infra-red jamming obsolete.
Launch at Twilight – “Thermal Crossover”
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February 17, 2003 at 2:13 am