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OTOH, an plane with a very precised gun may "win" an encounter by circling above a well-defended area, having SAMs shot at it, shooting down the SAMs as they ap
by tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
OTOH, an plane with a very precised gun may "win" an encounter by circling above a well-defended area, having SAMs shot at it, shooting down the SAMs as they approach, while being cheaper to operate (and replace when it eventually does get hit) than the missiles shot at it.
While at the same time occasionally dropping bombs at targets to make ignoring it not an option.
- dodobirdlord 6y agoThe defender in this scenario has a seriously disadvantage, in that the local SAM sites can send many missiles at the same time, and the anti-missile suite of the plane has to defeat every single one. A gun that would succeed in this scenario would be a massive technological leap. The US Navy uses gun-based anti-missile setups, but they are more of a last ditch sort of defense that can defeat a small number of incoming missiles by putting an absurd amount of bullets in their way.
- likeclockwork 6y agoThe plane is the attacker, unless someone invaded their home and put SAM sites everywhere while they were out.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago> can send many missiles at the same time, and the anti-missile suite of the plane has to defeat every single one. That's what makes unmanned planes special: It doesn't. It just has to force enough missiles to be fired that the missiles are more expensive/valuable than the plane when it ultimately gets shot down. (Value can be different from financial cost, depending on e.g. supply shortages, influence on the rest of the war, etc.)