on a lighter note, I noticed that regardless of the topic and the thumbnail all podcasts seem to steer to air force and jets. e.g. the video about the submarines moved to air force again. And I didn't get much insight about them or as much I wanted.
tbh this is my bad, the air force is something im a little more clued up on and it tends to be the branch you can make the most assumptions on, when it comes to the navy and particularly the hangor project, its so tightlipped and info is so, so scarce that we cant even make educated assumptions etc.
Or maybe its me although I am not complaining just point it out as a listener.
re questions or suggestions see if you can cover the air defense challenges.
Its a topic im interested in and aseem and i had discussed, maybe its one we can talk about soon but its something we'd need to do a bit more research on, atleast, i would.
We had talked about the effectiveness of such solutions and perhaps how i believe they may not be as effective as we think in some cases, but again, its something ill look more into and brush up on alot more and lets see if we can discuss it.
But just to discuss briefly here:
defence against low tech FPV drones launched by BLA and TTP and then India and viable solutions to replace our legacy AAK AAK guns with smart guns that are economical to operate and efficient for both low end and high end roles like firing smart / AHEAD munitions to just an artillery barrage for area denial and taking out of drones and missiles.
You'd be surprised to learn that an AHEAD round costs in excess of
$600 PER ROUND!
If we started using standard prox fusing, some of these drones are so small you're going to not trigger the fuse, requiring a direct hit. This significantly brings your probability of kill down. Infact, a Russian professor published a very good paper on this, where based off of real world experiments and data, he concludes the following:
“When firing at a mini-UAV of the Akila type with cannon weapons at a distance of 3 km, in order to achieve a value of the conditional probability of hitting a target equal to 0.5, it is necessary to expend from 4 to 13 thousand shells,” says Makarenko.
There is also many a video of pantsir's being unable to successfully intercept SINGLE drones, thus, crews bailing before the unit gets blown to bits.
The thing is, ahead probably actually does a really good job, but its kinda only one bit of this equation. Makarenko also mentions the detection problem, alongside the fuzing one (
here is a tor flying past a dji drone).
Lets say ahead solves the fusing issue, detection is a REAL pain in the arse, like, if you're only able to detect at a couple km away, then have to wait for a proper fire quality track, you're intercepting awfully close to the systems. Its just all such a problem for legacy systems.
Like, taking Ack Acks and modernising them just is going to be such a pain, you'd need to design radars, motorised mounts for fire/tracking, then having to modify the barrels to provide fire control data to the rounds, not to mention developing the rounds etc.
There is so many issues, its such a complex problem an we've not even begun to talk about swarms.
I think really, the only way forward are non kinetic solutions in the form of RF jammers, DEW's etc or mass swathes of interceptor drones backed up with ahead equipped guns or potentially mini missiles developed specifically for this purpose?
we got 20mm and 37mm Orliken gun systems that are filmed my civilians in Lahore as well but there is not enough footage but I would really like all three services to phase out the vintage 37MM twin barrel and 14.5mm Quad type 56 based on Soviet SPU. they should be given to either FF, Levies or Janbaz forces or to other countries. they make the bulk of the arsenal of the Pakistan air defense Corps , only good for drones or in ground role for personnel and light vehicles. (they been used against TTP by our remote check posts). Turkey has made something similar to the German Rheinmetall Air Defence guns, they fire smart munitions with proximity fuse that splits the projectile at the programed distance into a spiral destroying any small or media object.
this overhaul is needed to all three services. I am not talking RBS 70, singer and other manpads and bigger SAM systems. I am talking about the conventional AAK AAK guns, that offer better solution against the low flying / incoming projectiles of differing speeds.
why modernization of AAK AAK artillery? its more cost effective and efficient. will achieve better results with less number of rounds fired. number of replaced units may remain but their efficiency and effectiveness will increase. for very sensitive installations and command centers depots and storages , apart from electronic warfare pieces used in defensive mode to disrupt the incoming missiles, I guess some version of C-RAM system is also needed , they do look very Hollywood but their application is practical and are staple CIWS for ships defenses.
I actually think a departure from gun based solutions may be needed, as drones become smaller, stealthier and harder to detect, if your bases arent built around optimal gun position, plus with sufficient numbers of guns, you will find yourself overwhelmed very fast and losing numbers rapidly. IMO, something with a ahead style 'tungsten curtain', but with a seeker, low cost components (commercial rocket motors?), seekers etc may be the way fwd
private message me if you want clarification or if you care . I am based in UK so we can talk as well. but only if you guys can find time and interest to talk something low tech like AAK AAK in addition to Military Aviation.
..but digital id can be found out.
