Re: New Chinese UAV
So, ideally, to do that, one'd have to have a missile that's cheap enough to use in vast numbers and small enough to be launched in vast numbers without having to use like 90% of the planaf aircraft inventory. 6 per jh7 seems like a minimum. that way 48 airplanes could launch a probably sufficient number of missiles, almost 300 of them.
Biggest hurdle, of course, is cost. One must make the missile cheap enough so several waves, if needed, could be performed and several targets engaged over a prolongued period of time. We're talking about perhaps up to 10.000 missiles in the whole inventory. A Harpoon costs some million dollars, if not more. Chinese equivalent would be cheaper, but even at third of the pricetag it's still a pricy figure - 3.5 billion dollars. Now, IF that's enough to mission kill 3-4 CBGs, then its a bargain. But one can't be so sure.
What is really needed is a cheaper missile still. And since the costliest part of the missile is its guidance section, perhaps getting rid of it is a possible solution. Make only 30-50% of the missiles in the swarm use proper guidance. The rest of the missiles, randomly positioned in the swarm, fly by just following the data fed to them by the missiles with guidance. Jamming such a link shouldn't be a problem, as microwave datalinks are of such short range that the defender wouldn't be able to jam them until they're like 5 or so km from the ships. (issue might be the added cost of such datalink systems on the missiles) They probably won't have enough precision to strike at a target, but that wouldn't be their role anyway. Since the defender doesn't know which missile has guidance, it'd have to try to intercept every single one. Cost of the missile invetory should be able to go down by a billion or two.
Naturally, this approach would simply not work if defender would be aware of its probability. If the attacker gives the defender several years of preparation, to come up with an equaly cheap defense solution (which he would) then it all comes apart. And trying to calculate the spy race is not a very smart thing to do...
So, realistically, the first solution of biting the bullet and just invest 5 billion in missile inventory seems like a better way to go about it.
So, ideally, to do that, one'd have to have a missile that's cheap enough to use in vast numbers and small enough to be launched in vast numbers without having to use like 90% of the planaf aircraft inventory. 6 per jh7 seems like a minimum. that way 48 airplanes could launch a probably sufficient number of missiles, almost 300 of them.
Biggest hurdle, of course, is cost. One must make the missile cheap enough so several waves, if needed, could be performed and several targets engaged over a prolongued period of time. We're talking about perhaps up to 10.000 missiles in the whole inventory. A Harpoon costs some million dollars, if not more. Chinese equivalent would be cheaper, but even at third of the pricetag it's still a pricy figure - 3.5 billion dollars. Now, IF that's enough to mission kill 3-4 CBGs, then its a bargain. But one can't be so sure.
What is really needed is a cheaper missile still. And since the costliest part of the missile is its guidance section, perhaps getting rid of it is a possible solution. Make only 30-50% of the missiles in the swarm use proper guidance. The rest of the missiles, randomly positioned in the swarm, fly by just following the data fed to them by the missiles with guidance. Jamming such a link shouldn't be a problem, as microwave datalinks are of such short range that the defender wouldn't be able to jam them until they're like 5 or so km from the ships. (issue might be the added cost of such datalink systems on the missiles) They probably won't have enough precision to strike at a target, but that wouldn't be their role anyway. Since the defender doesn't know which missile has guidance, it'd have to try to intercept every single one. Cost of the missile invetory should be able to go down by a billion or two.
Naturally, this approach would simply not work if defender would be aware of its probability. If the attacker gives the defender several years of preparation, to come up with an equaly cheap defense solution (which he would) then it all comes apart. And trying to calculate the spy race is not a very smart thing to do...
So, realistically, the first solution of biting the bullet and just invest 5 billion in missile inventory seems like a better way to go about it.
