TOR Air Defence system

I just realised that if you want to implement AESA radars for search and tracking then four vertically aligned radars would not work, they would have to be angled upwards or there would be a gap above the vehicle where targets would be safe.

Over time as more AESA radars are adopted and AESA elements are mass produced the price for an AESA radar is going to drop but also the quality and performance is also going to improve as well.

The brand new self defence mini SAMs they were working on in the 10-20kg weight range with a 3kg HE warhead to destroy what they hit and also ARH seekers to ensure direct contact with the target during interception sounds like something they will need comprehensive radar coverage to be able to use.

It does not matter how many mini SAMs a convoy has with it ready to fire, if the threat is a FPV drone that is sitting on the ground on the path of the convoy that takes off when the convoy is 20m away and flys the last 20m to impact one of the convoy vehicles then a missile might not be fast enough... perhaps nothing will be fast enough... so netting and protection and jammers and directed energy weapons including lasers but also something to scramble the brains of these drones is going to be needed.

For targets from further away you are going to need excellent radar and IIR and DTV (optical imaging IR and Digital TV) coverage of the airspace over the convoy at all times, with communications linking the sensors to the defensive measures (smoke, jamming, laser weapons, DEW, missiles , guns etc etc) so they can be used in time to make a difference.

The same problem exists with RPG teams, so maybe something along the lines of an APS could be useful that can knock down drones and missiles and rockets as well as incoming artillery shells and rockets too.

A range of platforms from light to heavy makes sense... they already have Terminator which can be updated with more anti drone systems and equipment and weapons, and of course your own drones can contribute to defending your own convoys... tethered drones have been mentioned but they would actually be a little problematic in places with overhead lines in urban areas... Free floating airships operating at altitudes that MANPADS can't reach and the only weapons that could reach are large weapons like Patriot or BUK that could be engaged with its own self defence missiles... these 10kg self defence missiles for trucks would work for Airships too...

An airship that is 100m long would not be so easy to bring down, with modern materials and design it could be made rather fire proof and you would need to hit it with a substantial sized bomb to damage enough hydrogen bags to make it descend... in comparison most SAMs will bring down a conventional aircraft doing the same job.