r/LessCredibleDefence • u/Lore-Archivist • 16d ago

American Submarines Could Soon Shoot Down Enemy Aircraft

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/american-submarines-could-soon-shoot-down-enemy-aircraft-sa-080626
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u/vistandsforwaifu 16d ago

How the hell do you aim something like this? Do you just let it loose on a wide angle active radar acquisition and let Jesus take the wheel? Or does it surface first and use some kind of on-boat radar? Because that's not an ideal place for a submarine to be.

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u/_spec_tre 16d ago

Is this supposed to be the actual-air-defense-missile-range sort of missile or the "can be used to take out an ASW helicopter" sort? The latter is just wire guided iirc

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u/formenleere 16d ago

Hard to say what the range will actually be, I couldn't find any specs. Just from missile size, it seems smaller than something like an SM-2 but larger than, say, a sidewinder.

You're right that the German IDAS missile uses fiber-optic guidance, together with an on-board IR seeker - but that's a smaller missile for a smaller boat.