Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: jln@Portia.stanford.edu (Jared Nedzel) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Shoulder-Launched AA Missles Message-ID: <11963@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 5 Dec 89 03:54:50 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Stanford University Lines: 48 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Jared Nedzel In article <11927@cbnews.ATT.COM> you write: > > >From: uswat!sunpeaks!cadnetix.COM!waynea (Wayne Angevine) >This is a subject which has intrigued me for some time, and has come >to my attention again with reports from El Salvador. Let me put forth >a deliberately somewhat hyperbolic hypothesis and see what discussion >it brings out. > >I hypothesize that the shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missle makes >much of the modern air force obsolete. The major reason is the cost >differential. Secondary considerations are size and portability. >In short, any airplane you can build, I can shoot down for much less >cost and from pretty much any position. > >What do you think? Just like the development of radar-guided SAMs in the '60s made planes obsolete. :-/ No, the missiles don't make aircraft obsolete. Just look at Afghanistan. The Soviets were obliged to change their tactics and add countermeasures (flares, exhaust shielding and mixing, NOE flying, etc) but they did not ground their aircraft. As for being able to shoot-down a plane from "pretty much any position," I can't agree with you here. The man-portable missiles have severe limits in maximum range and I don't believe any of them are "all-aspect." (i.e. they can only acquire the target when inside a limited cone extending rearward from the target). Man-portable missiles are just another threat that has to be dealt with. They are not the end of aircraft. > Wayne Angevine Internet: waynea@cadnetix.com -- Jared L. Nedzel --------------------------------------------------------------------- e-mail: nedzel@cive.stanford.edu jln@portia.stanford.edu