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118-537: Originally the project began as a surface-to-air missile seeker developed by Texas Instruments (TI). When TI executive Glenn E. Penisten attempted to sell the new technology to the United States Air Force (USAF), Colonel Joe Davis Jr. inquired if it could instead be used as a ground attack system to overcome problems US aircraft were having with the poor accuracy of bombing in Vietnam. Davis had already witnessed

236-587: A "flak rocket" concept, which led Walter Dornberger to ask Wernher von Braun to prepare a study on a guided missile able to reach between 15,000 and 18,000 m (49,000 and 59,000 ft) altitude. Von Braun became convinced a better solution was a manned rocket interceptor, and said as much to the director of the T-Amt , Roluf Lucht , in July. The directors of the Luftwaffe flak arm were not interested in manned aircraft, and

354-708: A 300 to 600 pounds (140 to 270 kg) warhead for a 30 to 60 percent kill probability. This weapon did not emerge for 16 years, when it entered operation as the RIM-8 Talos . Heavy shipping losses to kamikaze attacks during the Liberation of the Philippines and the Battle of Okinawa provided additional incentive for guided missile development. This led to the British Fairey Stooge and Brakemine efforts, and

472-600: A 75 mm 12-pounder, and even a 105 mm gun. Erhardt also had a 12-pounder, while Vickers Maxim offered a 3-pounder and Schneider a 47 mm. The French balloon gun appeared in 1910, it was an 11-pounder but mounted on a vehicle, with a total uncrewed weight of two tons. However, since balloons were slow moving, sights were simple. But the challenges of faster moving aeroplanes were recognised. By 1913 only France and Germany had developed field guns suitable for engaging balloons and aircraft and addressed issues of military organisation. Britain's Royal Navy would soon introduce

590-521: A SAM system in earnest with the opening of the Cold War . Joseph Stalin was worried that Moscow would be subjected to American and British air raids , like those against Berlin , and, in 1951, he demanded that a missile system to counter a 900 bomber raid be built as quickly as possible. This led to the S-25 Berkut system ( NATO reporting name : SA-1 "Guild"), which was designed, developed and deployed in

708-492: A considerable increase in effectiveness compared with free-falling, unguided bombs , and doing so at a fraction of the cost of other guided weapons. The cost of the add-on kits was only a few percent of the original $ 100,000 price goal. The BOLT-117 featured a KMU-342 laser guidance and control kit attached to M117 750-pound bomb. The guidance system and control fins were adapted from the AGM-45 Shrike missile. The BOLT-117

826-407: A conventional war. Once a major group unto itself, medium-range designs have seen less development since the 1990s, as the focus has changed to unconventional warfare. Developments have also been made in onboard maneuverability. Israel's David's Sling Stunner missile is designed to intercept the newest generation of tactical ballistic missiles at low altitude. The multi-stage interceptor consists of

944-666: A degree, leading to the introduction of the FIM-43 Redeye , SA-7 Grail and Blowpipe . Rapid improvement in the 1980s led to second generation designs, like the FIM-92 Stinger , 9K34 Strela-3 (SA-14), Igla-1 and Starstreak , with dramatically improved performance. By the 1990s to the 2010s, the Chinese had developed designs drawing influence from these, notably the FN-6 and the QW series . Through

1062-628: A full military structure. For example, the UK's Anti-Aircraft Command, commanded by a full British Army general was part of ADGB. At its peak in 1941–42 it comprised three AA corps with 12 AA divisions between them. The use of balloons by the U.S. Army during the American Civil War compelled the Confederates to develop methods of combating them. These included the use of artillery, small arms, and saboteurs. They were unsuccessful, and internal politics led

1180-461: A head-on approach at low speeds comparable to manned aircraft. These designs included the Feuerlilie, Schmetterling and Enzian. The second group were high-speed missiles, typically supersonic, that flew directly towards their targets from below. These included Wasserfall and Rheintochter. Both types used radio control for guidance, either by eye, or by comparing the returns of the missile and target on

1298-451: A large traverse that could be easily transported on a wagon. Krupp 75 mm guns were supplied with an optical sighting system that improved their capabilities. The German Army also adapted a revolving cannon that came to be known to Allied fliers as the " flaming onion " from the shells in flight. This gun had five barrels that quickly launched a series of 37 mm artillery shells. As aircraft started to be used against ground targets on

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1416-516: A laser guided bomb was made using BOLT-117s on 23 May 1968. Without the existence of tracking pods, the Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) in the back seat of an F-4 Phantom II used a hand-held Airborne Laser Designator to guide the bombs, but half of the LGBs still hit their targets despite the difficulties inherent in keeping the laser on the target. Placement of the control surfaces on the rear of

1534-522: A layered defence. This evolution of design increasingly pushed gun-based systems into the shortest-range roles. The American Nike Ajax was the first operational SAM system, and the Soviet Union's S-75 Dvina was the most-produced SAM system. Widely used modern examples include the Patriot and S-300 wide-area systems, SM-6 and MBDA Aster Missile naval missiles, and short-range man-portable systems like

1652-543: A maritime force against attacks by airborne weapons launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based sites". In some armies the term all-arms air defence (AAAD) is used for air defence by nonspecialist troops. Other terms from the late 20th century include "ground based air defence" (GBAD) with related terms " short range air defense " (SHORAD) and man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS). Anti-aircraft missiles are variously called surface-to-air missiles , ("SAMs") and surface-to-air guided weapons (SAGWs). Examples are

1770-504: A new 3.6-inch gun, in 1918. In 1928 a 3.7-inch (94 mm) gun became the preferred solution, but it took six years to gain funding. Production of the QF 3.7-inch gun began in 1937; this gun was used on mobile carriages with the field army and transportable guns on fixed mountings for static positions. At the same time the Royal Navy adopted a new 4.5-inch (113 mm) gun in a twin turret, which

1888-624: A new field mounting was introduced in 1916. Since most attacks were at night, searchlights were soon used, and acoustic methods of detection and locating were developed. By December 1916 there were 183 AA sections defending Britain (most with the 3-inch), 74 with the BEF in France and 10 in the Middle East. AA gunnery was a difficult business. The problem was of successfully aiming a shell to burst close to its target's future position, with various factors affecting

2006-611: A par with the army, navy, or air force. In the Soviet Union, this was called Voyska PVO , and had both fighter aircraft, separate from the air force, and ground-based systems. This was divided into two arms, PVO Strany, the Strategic Air defence Service responsible for Air Defence of the Homeland, created in 1941 and becoming an independent service in 1954, and PVO SV, Air Defence of the Ground Forces. Subsequently, these became part of

2124-439: A part of their multi-layered air defence. SAM systems generally fall into two broad groups based on their guidance systems, those using radar and those using some other means. Longer range missiles generally use radar for early detection and guidance. Early SAM systems generally used tracking radars and fed guidance information to the missile using radio control concepts, referred to in the field as command guidance . Through

2242-488: A rush program. Early units entered operational service on 7 May 1955, and the entire system ringing Moscow was completely activated by June 1956. The system failed, however, to detect, track, and intercept the only overflight of the Soviet capital Moscow by a U-2 reconnaissance plane on July 5, 1956. The S-25 was a static system, but efforts were also put into a smaller design that would be much more mobile. This emerged in 1957 as

2360-458: A separate tracking radar for attack. Short range systems are more likely to be entirely visual for detection. Hybrid systems are also common. The MIM-72 Chaparral was fired optically, but normally operated with a short range early warning radar that displayed targets to the operator. This radar, the FAAR , was taken into the field with a Gama Goat and set up behind the lines. Information was passed to

2478-518: A single radar screen. Development of all these systems was carried out at the same time, and the war ended before any of them was ready for combat use. The infighting between various groups in the military also delayed development. Some extreme fighter designs, like the Komet and Natter , also overlapped with SAMs in their intended uses. Albert Speer was especially supportive of missile development. In his opinion, had they been consistently developed from

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2596-584: A solid-fuel, rocket motor booster, followed by an asymmetrical kill vehicle with advanced steering for super-maneuverability during the kill-stage. A three-pulse motor provides additional acceleration and maneuverability during the terminal phase. MANPAD systems first developed in the 1960s and proved themselves in battle during the 1970s. MANPADS normally have ranges on the order of 3 km (1.9 mi) and are effective against attack helicopters and aircraft making ground attacks. Against fixed wing aircraft, they can be very effective, forcing them to fly outside

2714-545: A test of the United States Army 's new laser target designator made by Martin Marietta , but no seeker existed to make use of the system. Davis had already performed tests from the back seat of an F-4 Phantom II fighter bomber and proved that it was possible to accurately target objects from a moving aircraft. His mock testing proved correct, and during further testing with live seekers, it took just six attempts to improve

2832-508: A variation of the SARH technique, but based on laser illumination instead of radar. These have the advantage of being small and very fast acting, as well as highly accurate. A few older designs use purely optical tracking and command guidance, perhaps the best known example of this is the British Rapier system, which was initially an all-optical system with high accuracy. All SAM systems from

2950-530: Is an extension of air defence, as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight. Most modern anti-aircraft (AA) weapons systems are optimized for short-, medium-, or long-range air defence, although some systems may incorporate multiple weapons (such as both autocannons and surface-to-air missiles ). ‘Layered air defence’ usually refers to multiple ‘tiers’ of air defence systems which, when combined, an airborne threat must penetrate in order to reach its target; This defence

3068-475: Is assisted but not governed by identification friend or foe (IFF) electronic devices originally introduced during the Second World War . While these rules originate at the highest authority, different rules can apply to different types of air defence covering the same area at the same time. AAAD usually operates under the tightest rules. NATO calls these rules "weapon control orders" (WCO), they are: Until

3186-631: Is deployed in several ways: Air defence has included other elements, although after the Second World War most fell into disuse: Passive air defence is defined by NATO as "Passive measures taken for the physical defence and protection of personnel, essential installations and equipment in order to minimise the effectiveness of air and/or missile attack". It remains a vital activity by ground forces and includes camouflage and concealment to avoid detection by reconnaissance and attacking aircraft. Measures such as camouflaging important buildings were common in

3304-556: Is due to improved rocket fuels and ever-smaller electronics in the guidance systems. Some very long-range systems remain, notably the Russian S-400 , which has a range of 400 km (250 mi). Medium-range designs, like the Rapier and 2K12 Kub , are specifically designed to be highly mobile with very fast, or zero, setup times. Many of these designs were mounted on armoured vehicles, allowing them to keep pace with mobile operations in

3422-609: Is expected that they would be more widely used against sea skimming missiles rather than aircraft . Virtually all surface warships can be armed with SAMs, and naval SAMs are a necessity for all front-line surface warships. Some warship types specialize in anti-air warfare e.g. Ticonderoga -class cruisers equipped with the Aegis combat system or Kirov -class cruisers with the S-300F Fort missile system. Modern Warships may carry all three types (from long-range to short-range) of SAMs as

3540-454: Is operated by specialists, batteries may have several dozen teams deploying separately in small sections; self-propelled air defence guns may deploy in pairs. Batteries are usually grouped into battalions or equivalent. In the field army, a light gun or SHORAD battalion is often assigned to a manoeuvre division. Heavier guns and long-range missiles may be in air-defence brigades and come under corps or higher command. Homeland air defence may have

3658-414: Is to detect hostile aircraft and destroy them. The critical issue is to hit a target moving in three-dimensional space; an attack must not only match these three coordinates, but must do so at the time the target is at that position. This means that projectiles either have to be guided to hit the target, or aimed at the predicted position of the target at the time the projectile reaches it, taking into account

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3776-573: Is usually accomplished via the combined use of systems optimized for either short-, medium-, or long-range air defence. In some countries, such as Britain and Germany during the Second World War , the Soviet Union , and modern NATO and the United States, ground-based air defence and air defence aircraft have been under integrated command and control. However, while overall air defence may be for homeland defence (including military facilities), forces in

3894-425: The 13-pr QF 9 cwt and these proved much more satisfactory. However, in general, these ad hoc solutions proved largely useless. With little experience in the role, no means of measuring target, range, height or speed the difficulty of observing their shell bursts relative to the target gunners proved unable to get their fuse setting correct and most rounds burst well below their targets. The exception to this rule

4012-500: The AGM-62 Walleye could accurately strike targets with small outlines and good contrast on camera but had difficulty hitting large oddly shaped structures like bridges. Laser-guided weapons allowed far greater precision against these types of targets, and with much larger warheads. Another equally important improvement was the ability to use add-on guidance kits to turn standard "dumb" ordnance into precision-guided munition yielding

4130-511: The Boeing B-17 , which operated just within the range of the numerous German eighty-eights , an average of 2,805 rounds had to be fired per bomber destroyed. Bombers flying at higher altitudes require larger guns and shells to reach them. This greatly increases the cost of the system, and (generally) slows the rate of fire. Faster aircraft fly out of range more quickly, reducing the number of rounds fired against them. Against late-war designs like

4248-560: The Boeing B-29 Superfortress or jet-powered designs like the Arado Ar 234 , flak would be essentially useless. This potential was already obvious by 1942, when Walther von Axthelm outlined the growing problems with flak defences that he predicted would soon be dealing with "aircraft speeds and flight altitudes [that] will gradually reach 1,000 km/h (620 mph) and between 10,000–15,000 m (33,000–49,000 ft)." This

4366-492: The Chaparral via a data link . Likewise, the UK's Rapier system included a simple radar that displayed the rough direction of a target on a series of lamps arranged in a circle. The missile operator would point his telescope in that rough direction and then hunt for the target visually. Anti-aircraft gun Anti-aircraft warfare is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce

4484-611: The Nike Hercules , the first nuclear-armed SAM. The U.S. Army Air Forces had also considered collision-course weapons (like the German radio-controlled concepts) and launched Project Thumper in 1946. This was merged with another project, Wizard, and emerged as the CIM-10 Bomarc in 1959. The Bomarc had a range of over 500 km, but it was quite expensive and somewhat unreliable. Development of Oerlikon 's RSD 58 started in 1947, and

4602-458: The QF 3-inch and QF 4-inch AA guns and also had Vickers 1-pounder quick firing "pom-poms" that could be used in various mountings. The first US anti-aircraft cannon was a 1-pounder concept design by Admiral Twining in 1911 to meet the perceived threat of airships, that eventually was used as the basis for the US Navy's first operational anti-aircraft cannon: the 3-inch/23 caliber gun . On

4720-647: The RIM-66 Standard , Raytheon Standard Missile 6 , or the MBDA Aster missile. Non-English terms for air defence include the German Flak or FlaK ( Fliegerabwehrkanone , 'aircraft defence cannon', also cited as Flugabwehrkanone ), whence English flak , and the Russian term Protivovozdushnaya oborona ( Cyrillic : Противовозду́шная оборо́на), a literal translation of 'anti-air defence', abbreviated as PVO. In Russian,

4838-653: The Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) was manning AA guns and searchlights assembled from various sources at some nine ports. The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was given responsibility for AA defence in the field, using motorised two-gun sections. The first were formally formed in November 1914. Initially they used QF 1-pounder "pom-pom"s (37 mm versions of the Maxim Gun ). All armies soon deployed AA guns often based on their smaller field pieces, notably

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4956-462: The Sea Slug . The Vietnam War was the first modern war in which guided antiaircraft missiles seriously challenged highly advanced supersonic jet aircraft. It would also be the first and only time that the latest and most modern air defense technologies of the Soviet Union and the most modern jet fighter planes and bombers of the United States confronted each other in combat (if one does not count

5074-448: The Stinger and 9K38 Igla . The first known idea for a guided surface-to-air missile was in 1925, when a beam riding system was proposed whereby a rocket would follow a searchlight beam onto a target. A selenium cell was mounted on the tip of each of the rocket's four tail fins, with the cells facing backwards. When one selenium cell was no longer in the light beam, it would be steered in

5192-452: The U.S. Navy 's SAM-N-2 Lark . The Lark ran into considerable difficulty and it never entered operational use. The end of the war led to the British efforts being used strictly for research and development throughout their lifetime. In the immediate post-war era, SAM developments were under way around the world, with several of these entering service in the early- and mid-1950s. Coming to

5310-593: The United States Air Force 's operating bases in the UK. All ground-based air defence was removed from Royal Air Force (RAF) jurisdiction in 2004 . The British Army's Anti-Aircraft Command was disbanded in March 1955, but during the 1960s and 1970s the RAF's Fighter Command operated long-range air-defence missiles to protect key areas in the UK. During World War II, the Royal Marines also provided air defence units; formally part of

5428-399: The 1940s and 1950s led to operational systems being introduced by most major forces during the second half of the 1950s. Smaller systems, suitable for close-range work, evolved through the 1960s and 1970s, to modern systems that are man-portable. Shipborne systems followed the evolution of land-based models, starting with long-range weapons and steadily evolving toward smaller designs to provide

5546-649: The 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions were the standard weapon; guided missiles then became dominant, except at the very shortest ranges. However, the type of shell or warhead and its fuzing and, with missiles, the guidance arrangement were and are varied. Targets are not always easy to destroy; nonetheless, damaged aircraft may be forced to abort their mission and, even if they manage to return and land in friendly territory, may be out of action for days or permanently. Ignoring small arms and smaller machine-guns, ground-based air defence guns have varied in calibre from 20 mm to at least 152 mm. Ground-based air defence

5664-489: The 1960s, the semi-active radar homing (SARH) concept became much more common. In SARH, the reflections of the tracking radar's broadcasts are picked up by a receiver in the missile, which homes in on this signal. SARH has the advantage of leaving most of the equipment on the ground, while also eliminating the need for the ground station to communicate with the missile after launch. Smaller missiles, especially MANPADS, generally use infrared homing guidance systems. These have

5782-465: The 30th of September, 1915, troops of the Serbian Army observed three enemy aircraft approaching Kragujevac . Soldiers fired at them with shotguns and machine-guns but failed to prevent them from dropping 45 bombs over the city, hitting military installations, the railway station and many other, mostly civilian, targets in the city. During the bombing raid, private Radoje Ljutovac fired his cannon at

5900-420: The 8.8 cm FlaK 18 in 1933, the 36 and 37 models followed with various improvements, but ballistic performance was unchanged. In the late 1930s the 10.5 cm FlaK 38 appeared, soon followed by the 39; this was designed primarily for static sites but had a mobile mounting, and the unit had 220 V 24 kW generators. In 1938 design started on the 12.8 cm FlaK . Britain had successfully tested

6018-484: The AA systems are called zenitnye (i.e., 'pointing to zenith ') systems. In French, air defence is called Défense contre les aéronefs (DCA) , aéronef meaning 'aircraft'. The maximum distance at which a gun or missile can engage an aircraft is an important figure. However, many different definitions are used and unless the same definition is used, performance of different guns or missiles cannot be compared. For AA guns only

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6136-485: The British Isles increased in 1915 and the AA efforts were deemed somewhat ineffective, so a Royal Navy gunnery expert, Admiral Sir Percy Scott , was appointed to make improvements, particularly an integrated AA defence for London. The air defences were expanded with more RNVR AA guns, 75 mm and 3-inch, the pom-poms being ineffective. The naval 3-inch was also adopted by the army, the QF 3-inch 20 cwt (76 mm),

6254-484: The British adopted a new instrument developed by Vickers. It was a mechanical analogue computer - the Predictor AA No 1. Given the target height, its operators tracked the target and the predictor produced bearing, quadrant elevation and fuse setting. These were passed electrically to the guns, where they were displayed on repeater dials to the layers who "matched pointers" (target data and the gun's actual data) to lay

6372-468: The French 75 mm and Russian 76.2 mm, typically simply propped up on some sort of embankment to get the muzzle pointed skyward. The British Army adopted the 13-pounder quickly producing new mountings suitable for AA use, the 13-pdr QF 6 cwt Mk III was issued in 1915. It remained in service throughout the war but 18-pdr guns were lined down to take the 13-pdr shell with a larger cartridge producing

6490-544: The German Flugzeugabwehrkanone ), "ack-ack" (from the spelling alphabet used by the British for voice transmission of "AA"); and "archie" (a World War I British term probably coined by Amyas Borton , and believed to derive via the Royal Flying Corps , from the music-hall comedian George Robey 's line "Archibald, certainly not!" ). NATO defines anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) as "measures taken to defend

6608-468: The Second World War. During the Cold War the runways and taxiways of some airfields were painted green. While navies are usually responsible for their own air defence—at least for ships at sea—organisational arrangements for land-based air defence vary between nations and over time. The most extreme case was the Soviet Union and this model may still be followed in some countries: it was a separate service, on

6726-606: The United States Army's Balloon Corps to be disbanded mid-war. The Confederates experimented with balloons as well. Turks carried out the first ever anti-airplane operation in history during the Italo-Turkish war . Although lacking anti-aircraft weapons, they were the first to shoot down an airplane by rifle fire. The first aircraft to crash in a war was the one of Lieutenant Piero Manzini, shot down on August 25, 1912. The earliest known use of weapons specifically made for

6844-663: The Yom Kippur War wherein IAF was challenged by Syrian SA-3s). The USAF responded to this threat with increasingly effective means. Early efforts to directly attack the missiles sites as part of Operation Spring High and Operation Iron Hand were generally unsuccessful, but the introduction of Wild Weasel aircraft carrying Shrike missiles and the Standard ARM missile changed the situation dramatically. Feint and counterfeint followed as each side introduced new tactics to try to gain

6962-525: The advantage of being "fire-and-forget", once launched they will home on the target on their own with no external signals needed. In comparison, SARH systems require the tracking radar to illuminate the target, which may require them to be exposed through the attack. Systems combining an infrared seeker as a terminal guidance system on a missile using SARH are also known, like the MIM-46 Mauler , but these are generally rare. Some newer short-range systems use

7080-587: The air force and ground forces respectively. At the other extreme, the United States Army has an Air Defense Artillery Branch that provides ground-based air defence for both homeland and the army in the field; however, it is operationally under the Joint Force Air Component Commander . Many other nations also deploy an air-defence branch in the army. Some, such as Japan or Israel, choose to integrate their ground based air defence systems into their air force. In Britain and some other armies,

7198-413: The altitude at which a gun could deliver a series of shells against a moving target; this could be constrained by maximum fuse running time as well as the gun's capability. By the late 1930s the British definition was "that height at which a directly approaching target at 400 mph [640 km/h] can be engaged for 20 seconds before the gun reaches 70 degrees elevation". The essence of air defence

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7316-545: The anti-aircraft role occurred during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. After the disaster at Sedan , Paris was besieged and French troops outside the city started an attempt at communication via balloon . Gustav Krupp mounted a modified 1-pounder (37 mm) gun – the Ballonabwehrkanone (Balloon defence cannon) or BaK — on top of a horse-drawn carriage for the purpose of shooting down these balloons. By

7434-407: The ascending part of the trajectory can be usefully used. One term is "ceiling", the maximum ceiling being the height a projectile would reach if fired vertically, not practically useful in itself as few AA guns are able to fire vertically, and the maximum fuse duration may be too short, but potentially useful as a standard to compare different weapons. The British adopted "effective ceiling", meaning

7552-457: The battlefield, the AA guns could not be traversed quickly enough at close targets and, being relatively few, were not always in the right place (and were often unpopular with other troops), so changed positions frequently. Soon the forces were adding various machine-gun based weapons mounted on poles. These short-range weapons proved more deadly, and the " Red Baron " is believed to have been shot down by an anti-aircraft Vickers machine gun . When

7670-523: The bomb proved to be less than ideal as it limited the ability of the fins to control the bomb's trajectory . In the combat evaluations the BOLT-117 achieved a circular error probability (CEP) of 75 feet (23 m) while the Paveway I achieved a CEP of 20 feet (6.1 m) with one in every four bombs scoring a direct hit. Only a limited number of BOLT-117 bombs were produced before it was discontinued in favor of

7788-461: The bomber remaining outside the range of the ship's antiaircraft guns , and the missiles themselves were too small and fast to be attacked effectively. To combat this threat, the U.S. Navy launched Operation Bumblebee to develop a ramjet-powered missile to destroy the launching aircraft at long range. The initial performance goal was to target an intercept at a horizontal range of 10 miles (16 km) and 30,000 feet (9,100 m) altitude, with

7906-408: The competition for a share of limited defence budgets. Demobilisation meant that most AA guns were taken out of service, leaving only the most modern. However, there were lessons to be learned. In particular the British, who had had AA guns in most theatres in action in daylight and used them against night attacks at home. Furthermore, they had also formed an Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section during

8024-674: The early 20th century balloon, or airship, guns, for land and naval use were attracting attention. Various types of ammunition were proposed, high explosive, incendiary, bullet-chains, rod bullets and shrapnel. The need for some form of tracer or smoke trail was articulated. Fuzing options were also examined, both impact and time types. Mountings were generally pedestal type but could be on field platforms. Trials were underway in most countries in Europe but only Krupp, Erhardt, Vickers Maxim, and Schneider had published any information by 1910. Krupp's designs included adaptations of their 65 mm 9-pounder,

8142-520: The effectiveness of North Vietnamese anti-aircraft artillery, which used data from S-75 radar stations However, the U.S states only 205 of those aircraft were lost to North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles. All of these early systems were "heavyweight" designs with limited mobility and requiring considerable set-up time. However, they were also increasingly effective. By the early 1960s, the deployment of SAMs had rendered high-speed high-altitude flight in combat practically suicidal. The way to avoid this

8260-439: The effectiveness of hostile air action". It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched ), and air-based weapon systems, in addition to associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements, and passive measures (e.g. barrage balloons ). It may be used to protect naval , ground , and air forces in any location. However, for most countries, the main effort has tended to be homeland defence . Missile defence

8378-482: The enemy aircraft and successfully shot one down. It crashed in the city and both pilots died from their injuries. The cannon Ljutovac used was not designed as an anti-aircraft gun; it was a slightly modified Turkish cannon captured during the First Balkan War in 1912. This was the first occasion in military history that a military aircraft was shot down with ground-to-air artillery fire. The British recognised

8496-847: The evolution of SAMs, improvements were also being made to anti-aircraft artillery , but the missiles pushed them into ever shorter-range roles. By the 1980s, the only remaining widespread use was point-defense of airfields and ships, especially against cruise missiles . By the 1990s, even these roles were being encroached on by new MANPADS and similar short-range weapons, like the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile . Surface-to-air missiles are classified by their guidance , mobility, altitude and range . Missiles able to fly longer distances are generally heavier, and therefore less mobile. This leads to three "natural" classes of SAM systems; heavy long-range systems that are fixed or semi-mobile, medium-range vehicle-mounted systems that can fire on

8614-424: The famous S-75 Dvina (SA-2 "Guideline"), a portable system, with very high performance, that remained in operation into the 2000s. The Soviet Union remained at the forefront of SAM development throughout its history; and Russia has followed suit. The early British developments with Stooge and Brakemine were successful, but further development was curtailed in the post-war era. These efforts picked up again with

8732-654: The field, wherever they are, provide their own defences against airborne threats. Until the 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions ranging from 7.62 mm (.30 in) to 152.4 mm (6 in) were the standard weapons; guided missiles then became dominant, except at the very shortest ranges (as with close-in weapon systems , which typically use rotary autocannons or, in very modern systems, surface-to-air adaptations of short-range air-to-air missiles , often combined in one system with rotary cannons). It may also be called counter-air , anti-air , AA , flak , layered air defence or air defence forces . The term air defence

8850-495: The first example was a Royal Navy system known as the Holman Projector , used as a last-ditch weapon on smaller ships. The Germans also produced a similar short-range weapon known as Fliegerfaust , but it entered operation only on a very limited scale. The performance gap between this weapon and jet fighters of the post-war era was so great that such designs would not be effective. By the 1960s, technology had closed this gap to

8968-458: The first large-scale raids by the Allied air forces started. As the urgency of the problem grew, new designs were added, including Enzian and Rheintochter , as well as the unguided Taifun which was designed to be launched in waves. In general, these designs could be split into two groups. One set of designs would be boosted to altitude in front of the bombers and then flown towards them on

9086-578: The ground-based air defence of the British Army's Anti-Aircraft Command , although field-deployed air defence relied on less sophisticated arrangements. NATO later called these arrangements an "air defence ground environment", defined as "the network of ground radar sites and command and control centres within a specific theatre of operations which are used for the tactical control of air defence operations". Rules of engagement are critical to prevent air defences engaging friendly or neutral aircraft. Their use

9204-579: The guns. This system of repeater electrical dials built on the arrangements introduced by British coast artillery in the 1880s, and coast artillery was the background of many AA officers. Similar systems were adopted in other countries and for example the later Sperry M3A3 in the US, was also used by Britain as the Predictor AA No 2. Height finders were also increasing in size; in Britain, the seven-foot optical base World War I Barr & Stroud UB 2 stereoscopic rangefinder

9322-494: The late 1930s for development work on sound-locating acoustic devices to be generally halted, although equipment was retained. Furthermore, in Britain the volunteer Observer Corps formed in 1925 provided a network of observation posts to report hostile aircraft flying over Britain. Initially radar was used for airspace surveillance to detect approaching hostile aircraft. However, the German Würzburg radar put into use in 1940

9440-592: The loss of three B-52s and several others damaged in a single mission. Dramatic changes followed, and by the end of the series, missions were carried out with additional chaff, ECM, Iron Hand, and other changes that dramatically changed the score. By the conclusion of the Linebacker II campaign, the shootdown rate of the S-75 against the B-52s was 7.52% (15 B-52s were shot down, 5 B-52s were heavily damaged for 266 missiles) During

9558-443: The mid-1960s, almost all modern armed forces had short-range missiles mounted on trucks or light armour that could move with the armed forces they protected. Examples include the 2K12 Kub (SA-6) and 9K33 Osa (SA-8), MIM-23 Hawk , Rapier , Roland and Crotale . The introduction of sea-skimming missiles in the late 1960s and 1970s led to additional mid- and short-range designs for defence against these targets. The UK's Sea Cat

9676-450: The missile's envelope and thereby greatly reducing their effectiveness in ground-attack roles. MANPAD systems are sometimes used with vehicle mounts to improve maneuverability, like the Avenger system. These systems have encroached on the performance niche formerly filled by dedicated mid-range systems. Ship-based anti-aircraft missiles are also considered to be SAMs, although in practice it

9794-513: The mobile naval base defence organisation, they were handled as an integral part of the army-commanded ground based air defences. The basic air defence unit is typically a battery with 2 to 12 guns or missile launchers and fire control elements. These batteries, particularly with guns, usually deploy in a small area, although batteries may be split; this is usual for some missile systems. SHORAD missile batteries often deploy across an area with individual launchers several kilometres apart. When MANPADS

9912-504: The more accurate Paveway I family of guidance kits that moved the control fins to the front of the bomb. The Paveway variant was very successful and over 28,000 Paveway weapons were dropped during the war in Vietnam. The impact of the BOLT-117 on aerial warfare was revolutionary, allowing the destruction of targets even other existing precision weapons had difficulty destroying due to having small warheads and difficulty tracking certain types of objects. Earlier electro-optical weapons such as

10030-595: The move, and short-range man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS). Modern long-range weapons include the MIM-104 Patriot and S-300 systems, which have effective ranges on the order of 150 km (93 mi) and offer relatively good mobility and short unlimbering times. These compare with older systems with similar or less range, like the MIM-14 Nike Hercules or S-75 Dvina , which required fixed sites of considerable size. Much of this performance increase

10148-487: The need for anti-aircraft capability a few weeks before World War I broke out; on 8 July 1914, the New York Times reported that the British government had decided to "dot the coasts of the British Isles with a series of towers, each armed with two quick-firing guns of special design," while "a complete circle of towers" was to be built around "naval installations" and "at other especially vulnerable points". By December 1914

10266-561: The opening of the Cold War, following the "Stage Plan" of improving UK air defences with new radars, fighters and missiles. Two competing designs were proposed for "Stage 1", based on common radar and control units, and these emerged as the RAF's Bristol Bloodhound in 1958, and the Army's English Electric Thunderbird in 1959. A third design followed the American Bumblebee efforts in terms of role and timeline, and entered service in 1961 as

10384-400: The opposite direction back into the beam. The first historical mention of a concept and design of a surface-to-air missile in which a drawing was presented, was by inventor Gustav Rasmus in 1931, who proposed a design that would home in on the sound of an aircraft's engines. During World War II , efforts were started to develop surface-to-air missiles as it was generally considered that flak

10502-730: The resulting disagreements between the teams delayed serious consideration of a SAM for two years. Von Axthelm published his concerns in 1942, and the subject saw serious consideration for the first time; initial development programs for liquid- and solid-fuel rockets became part of the Flak Development Program of 1942. By this point serious studies by the Peenemünde team had been prepared, and several rocket designs had been proposed, including 1940's Feuerlilie , and 1941's Wasserfall and Henschel Hs 117 Schmetterling . None of these projects saw any real development until 1943, when

10620-522: The same conclusions as the Germans regarding flak, the U.S. Army started its Project Nike developments in 1944. Led by Bell Labs , the Nike Ajax was tested in production form in 1952, becoming the first operational SAM system when it was activated in March 1954. Concerns about Ajax's ability to deal with formations of aircraft led to greatly updated version of the same basic design entering service in 1958 as

10738-505: The seeker accuracy from 148 feet (45 m) to within 10 feet (3.0 m) of the target. This greatly exceeded the design requirements. It was commissioned by the USAF in 1967. The BOLT-117 and Paveway I (based on the more streamlined Mk 84 2,000-pound bomb) underwent combat evaluation with the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing in Southeast Asia from May to August 1968. The first combat drop of

10856-461: The shells' predicted trajectory. This was called deflection gun-laying, where "off-set" angles for range and elevation were set on the gunsight and updated as their target moved. In this method, when the sights were on the target, the barrel was pointed at the target's future position. Range and height of the target determined fuse length. The difficulties increased as aircraft performance improved. The British dealt with range measurement first, when it

10974-571: The single artillery branch has been responsible for both home and overseas ground-based air defence, although there was divided responsibility with the Royal Navy for air defence of the British Isles in World War I . However, during the Second World War , the RAF Regiment was formed to protect airfields everywhere, and this included light air defences. In the later decades of the Cold War this included

11092-418: The smallest to the largest generally include identified as friend or foe (IFF) systems to help identify the target before being engaged. While IFF is not as important with MANPADs, as the target is almost always visually identified prior to launch, most modern MANPADs do include it. Long-range systems generally use radar systems for target detection, and depending on the generation of system, may "hand off" to

11210-477: The speed and direction of both the target and the projectile. Throughout the 20th century, air defence was one of the fastest-evolving areas of military technology, responding to the evolution of aircraft and exploiting technology such as radar, guided missiles and computing (initially electromechanical analogue computing from the 1930s on, as with equipment described below). Improvements were made to sensors, technical fire control, weapons, and command and control. At

11328-422: The start of the 20th century these were either very primitive or non-existent. Initially sensors were optical and acoustic devices developed during World War I and continued into the 1930s, but were quickly superseded by radar, which in turn was supplemented by optoelectronics in the 1980s. Command and control remained primitive until the late 1930s, when Britain created an integrated system for ADGB that linked

11446-550: The start, the large scale bomber raids of 1944 would have been impossible. The British developed unguided antiaircraft rockets (operated under the name Z Battery ) close to the start of World War II , but the air superiority usually held by the Allies meant that the demand for similar weapons was not as acute. When several Allied ships were sunk in 1943 by Henschel Hs 293 and Fritz X glide bombs , Allied interest changed. These weapons were released from stand-off distances, with

11564-463: The target and having its height. Second, that the target would maintain a steady course, speed and height. This HAA was to engage targets up to 24,000 ft (7.3 km). Mechanical time fuses were required because the speed of powder burning varied with height, so fuse length was not a simple function of time of flight. Automated fire ensured a constant rate of fire that made it easier to predict where each shell should be individually aimed. In 1925

11682-455: The upper hand. By the time of Operation Linebacker II in 1972, the Americans had gained critical information about the performance and operations of the S-75 (via Arab S-75 systems captured by Israel), and used these missions as a way to demonstrate the capability of strategic bombers to operate in a SAM saturated environment. Their first missions appeared to demonstrate the exact opposite, with

11800-409: The war and accumulated large amounts of data that was subjected to extensive analysis. As a result, they published the two-volume Textbook of Anti-Aircraft Gunnery in 1924–1925. It included five key recommendations for HAA equipment: Two assumptions underpinned the British approach to HAA fire; first, aimed fire was the primary method and this was enabled by predicting gun data from visually tracking

11918-437: The war ended, it was clear that the increasing capabilities of aircraft would require better means of acquiring targets and aiming at them. Nevertheless, a pattern had been set: anti-aircraft warfare would employ heavy weapons to attack high-altitude targets and lighter weapons for use when aircraft came to lower altitudes. World War I demonstrated that aircraft could be an important part of the battlefield, but in some nations it

12036-536: The war, The Soviet Union supplied 7,658 SAMs to North Vietnam, and their defense forces conducted about 5,800 launches, usually in multiples of three. By the war's end, the U.S lost a total of 3,374 aircraft in combat operations. According to the North Vietnamese, 31% were shot down by S-75 missiles (1,046 aircraft, or 5.6 missiles per one kill); 60% were shot down by anti-aircraft guns; and 9% were shot down by MiG fighters. The S-75 missile system significantly improved

12154-440: The years immediately after World War I, the prospect of another major war seemed remote, particularly in Europe, where the most militarily capable nations were, and little financing was available. Four years of war had seen the creation of a new and technically demanding branch of military activity. Air defence had made huge advances, albeit from a very low starting point. However, it was new and often lacked influential 'friends' in

12272-477: Was a closely held secret until 1955. Early versions of the missile were available for purchase as early as 1952, but never entered operational service. The RSD 58 used beam riding guidance, which has limited performance against high-speed aircraft, as the missile is unable to "lead" the target to a collision point. Examples were purchased by several nations for testing and training purposes, but no operational sales were made. The Soviet Union began development of

12390-655: Was an early example that was designed specifically to replace the Bofors 40 mm gun on its mount, and became the first operational point-defense SAM. The American RIM-7 Sea Sparrow quickly proliferated into a wide variety of designs fielded by most navies. Many of these are adapted from earlier mobile designs, but the special needs of the naval role has resulted in the continued existence of many custom missiles. As aircraft moved ever lower, and missile performance continued to improve, eventually it became possible to build an effective man-portable anti-aircraft missile. Known as MANPADS ,

12508-571: Was capable of providing data suitable for controlling AA guns, and the British Radar, Gun Laying, Mark I , was designed to be used on AA gun positions and was in use by 1939. The Treaty of Versailles prevented Germany having AA weapons, and for example, the Krupps designers joined Bofors in Sweden. Some World War I guns were retained and some covert AA training started in the late 1920s. Germany introduced

12626-581: Was determined by time of flight, but the burning rate of the gunpowder was affected by altitude. The British pom-poms had only contact-fused ammunition. Zeppelins , being hydrogen-filled balloons, were targets for incendiary shells and the British introduced these with airburst fuses, both shrapnel type-forward projection of incendiary "pot" and base ejection of an incendiary stream. The British also fitted tracers to their shells for use at night. Smoke shells were also available for some AA guns, these bursts were used as targets during training. German air attacks on

12744-702: Was discontinued in favor of the more powerful 2,000 pounds (910 kg) GBU-10 Paveway . Surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile ( SAM ), also known as a ground-to-air missile ( GTAM ) or surface-to-air guided weapon ( SAGW ), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft system ; in modern armed forces, missiles have replaced most other forms of dedicated anti-aircraft weapons, with anti-aircraft guns pushed into specialized roles. The first attempt at SAM development took place during World War II , but no operational systems were introduced. Further development in

12862-404: Was electrical; the operator entered the target range and had displays at guns; it was used with their 75 mm. The British Wilson-Dalby gun director used a pair of trackers and mechanical tachymetry; the operator entered the fuse length, and deflection angles were read from the instruments. By the start of World War I , the 77 mm had become the standard German weapon, and came mounted on

12980-415: Was of little use against bombers of ever-increasing performance. The lethal radius of a flak shell is fairly small, and the chance of delivering a "hit" is essentially a fixed percentage per round. In order to attack a target, guns fire continually while the aircraft are in range in order to launch as many shells as possible, increasing the chance that one of these will end up within the lethal range. Against

13098-575: Was probably first used by the UK when Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB) was created as a Royal Air Force command in 1925. However, arrangements in the UK were also called "anti-aircraft", abbreviated as AA , a term that remained in general use into the 1950s. After the First World War it was sometimes prefixed by "light" or "heavy" (LAA or HAA) to classify a type of gun or unit. Nicknames for anti-aircraft guns include "AA", "AAA" or "triple-A" (abbreviations of "anti-aircraft artillery"), "flak" (from

13216-472: Was realised that range was the key to producing a better fuse setting. This led to the height/range finder (HRF), the first model being the Barr & Stroud UB2, a two-metre optical coincident rangefinder mounted on a tripod. It measured the distance to the target and the elevation angle, which together gave the height of the aircraft. These were complex instruments and various other methods were also used. The HRF

13334-572: Was replaced by the nine-foot optical base UB 7 and the eighteen-foot optical base UB 10 (only used on static AA sites). Goertz in Germany and Levallois in France produced five m (16 ft) instruments. However, in most countries the main effort in HAA guns until the mid-1930s was improving existing ones, although various new designs were on drawing boards. From the early 1930s eight countries developed radar ; these developments were sufficiently advanced by

13452-477: Was seen generally; in November 1943 the Director of Gunnery Division of the Royal Navy concluded that guns would be useless against jets, stating "No projectile of which control is lost when it leaves the ship can be of any use to us in this matter." The first serious consideration of a SAM development project was a series of conversations that took place in Germany during 1941. In February, Friederich Halder proposed

13570-551: Was soon joined by the height/fuse indicator (HFI), this was marked with elevation angles and height lines overlaid with fuse length curves, using the height reported by the HRF operator, the necessary fuse length could be read off. However, the problem of deflection settings — "aim-off" — required knowing the rate of change in the target's position. Both France and the UK introduced tachymetric devices to track targets and produce vertical and horizontal deflection angles. The French Brocq system

13688-501: Was the guns protecting spotting balloons, in which case the altitude could be accurately measured from the length of the cable holding the balloon. The first issue was ammunition. Before the war it was recognised that ammunition needed to explode in the air. Both high explosive (HE) and shrapnel were used, mostly the former. Airburst fuses were either igniferious (based on a burning fuse) or mechanical (clockwork). Igniferious fuses were not well suited for anti-aircraft use. The fuse length

13806-496: Was the prospect of strategic air attack that was the main issue, presenting both a threat and an opportunity. The experience of four years of air attacks on London by Zeppelins and Gotha G.V bombers had particularly influenced the British and was one of if not the main driver for forming an independent air force. As the capabilities of aircraft and their engines improved it was clear that their role in future war would be even more critical as their range and weapon load grew. However, in

13924-520: Was to fly lower, below the line-of-sight of missile's radar systems. This demanded very different aircraft, like the F-111 , TSR-2 , and Panavia Tornado . Consequently, SAMs evolved rapidly in the 1960s. As their targets were now being forced to fly lower due to the presence of the larger missiles, engagements would necessarily be at short ranges, and occur quickly. Shorter ranges meant the missiles could be much smaller, which aided them in terms of mobility. By

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