we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

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we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Blarghalt (?) » Sat Dec 08, 2018 8:34 pm

You're not coming down the chimney this year, fat man

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Re: we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Sun Dec 09, 2018 6:47 am

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Re: we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Smoke (?) » Sun Dec 09, 2018 8:24 am

I'd scramble a few fighters rather than trying to use AA. Bring out the Raptors for this one.
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Re: we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Dong Strongly (?) » Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:32 pm

If you intend to shoot down a target from the outset, there are many factors you have to take into account: target speed, altitude, radar cross section, visual cross section, defensive countermeasures, etc. Generally you would have intelligence about your target's intend flight path and you would build up your strategy from there. A high speed, high altitude target with a moderate radar cross section would require only a few large surface-to-air missile batteries in 3 strategic positions with maybe a couple interceptor squadrons on alert at the edges of radar coverage. High speed, low altitude targets require a mix of antiaircraft artillery, spotting stations, and many more smaller surface-to-air batteries distributed as densely as possible, with interceptors already airborne in search patterns to provide additional radar coverage.

Each component of the air defense system serves a different purpose:
-Antiaircraft artillery is generally ineffective at actually targeting and destroying the enemy. It's slow, inaccurate, the best use of artillery is to provide a conspicuous "curtain" of fire to try and convince the target to change their flight path to fly toward your other defense installations.
-Surface-to-Air missiles are going to make up the majority of your defense. They're always watching, they're largely automated, and they are more maneuverable than anything else in the air. The downsides are they can be tricked into going after the wrong thing and once you use up the one or two missiles in battery, its out for several hours or possibly days. They are also not super great at engaging low altitude targets since the target needs to be above the horizon for a significant amount of time in order to engage.
-Interceptors seem great, the most flexible option, able to engage multiple targets with a human there to make the hard decisions on the fly. But they're extremely limited in range, speed, and 'playtime', the amount of useful time wherein they can actually engage targets. It takes maybe 2 minutes at most for a medium range SAM to go from detection to impact; an interceptor on alert takes 10 minutes just to get off the ground. And once they're up in the air, it could take another 10-30 minutes to get to the target. If they scramble and don't engage right away, they need to refuel to extend their playtime.

In this case, to take down santa, I would go with a bunch of medium and short range SAM sites as well as spotting stations equipped with MANPADs, AAA putting up curtain fire around the densest population centers to slow him down, and a constantly rotating airborne interceptor alert flying drags in a designated corridor between the AAA.

TBH, your best bet is to get him while he's on the ground, maybe poison some milk and cookies or install punji stakes in your fireplace.
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Re: we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Perrydotto (?) » Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:23 pm

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Re: we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:43 pm

What if he jettisons some toys as chaff though
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Re: we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Dong Strongly (?) » Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:04 am

If I were santa, I would use the 4 D's while in this hostile airspace:

1. Deny: Prevent opportunities for the enemy to engage. Construct the sleigh from low-observable materials (wood, plastic, composites with low cross sections, radar-absorbent paint and surface geometries), fly low to minimize radar contacts and observable time over horizon (already necessary because I would need access to the houses), conduct operations when the enemy least expects it (December 26).

2. Degrade: In the event of engagement, make it more difficult for the enemy. Fly at night to make visual contact difficult. Fly a random flightpath to prevent the enemy from planning interception points. Fly under, over, or through cloud cover as necessary to break contact. Jam radar and communications to prevent the enemy from using their technology to make and maintain contact.

3. Defeat: Actively respond to direct threats and attacks with countermeasures. This one is tricky because if I'm already low-observable, responding to a missile launch or an enemy interceptor immediately blows my cover. Chaff to defeat radar guided attacks will give away my position and some radars will actually be able to determine position, heading, speed, and altitude from the chaff deployment. Flares to defeat infrared guided attacks are basically fancy fireworks which make me more visible (plus infrared guided attacks wouldn't work anyway because of lots of complicated reasons). The only feasible way I could see this working is if I had decoys flying at the same time so the enemy is chasing ghosts.

4. Destroy: Remove the enemy's ability to pose a threat. Anti-radiation missiles to destroy radar and communications facilities, dropping munitions on air bases to prevent interceptors from taking off or landing, destroy infrastructure to try and convince the enemy to surrender. Ideally it wouldn't come to this but it may become necessary to crack a few eggs to make eggnog.
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Re: we're gonna shoot down santa this year. post ur best anti-aircraft installations

Post by Octavia (?) » Tue Dec 11, 2018 4:01 pm

Mechanical Ape wrote:
Mon Dec 10, 2018 2:43 pm
What if he jettisons some toys as chaff though
Meet George Jettison!
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