Top cover -- air defence turrets: the low-flying strike aircraft and assault helicopter constitute the mechanised land forces' main enemies. Both present potentially lethal, fast-moving and fleeting targets that are difficult to engage other than by dedicated air defence vehicles with rapid response weapons.

Summary

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Air Defence

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Top cover -- air defence turrets: the low-flying strike aircraft and assault helicopter constitute the mechanised land forces' main enemies. Both present potentially lethal, fast-moving and fleeting targets that are difficult to engage other than by dedicated air defence vehicles with rapid response weapons.

Until recently, coping with such unpredictable targets meant that specialised, complex and bulky systems with powered turrets, requiring large vehicle chassis to carry them, had to be made available to mechanised formations. These days that task can be assumed by smaller, lighter and handier systems based around turrets mounting both guns and missile launchers.

Guns

Automatic guns still predominate for low-level air defence. The fast and fleeting nature of aircraft targets means that putting more projectiles into the air in the brief time available makes the possibility of a hit more certain. In addition, many low-flying aircraft and attack helicopters now have considerable armoured protection for the crews and vital components so the more armour-penetrating projectile strikes that can be made the better the chances of inflicting a kill. For such requirements the fast-firing gun still scores over the guided missile. There is also the topic of cost. Missiles, even small ones, can be expe...

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