Again though Planeman this issue with the ‘airborne CIWS’ is one of positioning against the inbound. Mistral, like most evolved MANPADS, has precious little cross-range ability – it is a ‘point-defence’ system. This means that, unless the airborne platform happens to be almost directly on the inbounds course, then there is little chance that a weapon like Mistral would be able to make an intercept.

A high endurance rotary platform as an EW asset, however, is an altogether different proposition. Spotting a multi-node ELINT detection capability 20k ft up 50nm off a surface group, on station for 18hrs, without a single planned flight deck movement required to maintain the capability once launched is obviously a hugely valuable asset to a task group commander.

Mounting a stand off jammer, onboard power limitations allowing, in an airframe that could be high-endurance stationed within normal AShM active seeker range of a group and only switched to emit at inbound seeker-activation, to confuse the missile terminal-phase and stuff up any possible value from a home-on-jam mode, is also something that could have real benefits to a forward deployed task group facing an advanced AShM threat.

The beauty of something like A-160T over the more conventional E-2/Ka-31 asset is, of course, that you have so much deployment flexibility with them. You could easily see a dozen or so embarked aboard a CVF type carrier configured for AEW with a Searchwater type array, perhaps three or four more on an LPH configured for ISTAR/Comms relay and should one crash/get shot down or even simply that a requirement for extra airframes crops up you get one VERTREP’d over from the RFA that has 6 in crates in the hold and let the tiffs screw it together and configure the airframe as necessary!. Hell of a capability.