Air Defence Training Simulator

This is handed to the interviewer before any system is discussed, so it can follow you instead of asking you to explain the field from the beginning. It is orientation, never authority: where it disagrees with a system’s approved profile the profile wins, and where it disagrees with you, you win. It is never used to fill a gap in what you actually said — the record a scenario becomes is built from your transcript alone.

Last edited 10/19/2026, 3:00:13 PM

How air defence works

The background any operator would take for granted. Keep what is true across systems here, and leave anything that differs between them to the questions each system answers for itself — ranges, how many interceptors can be in the air, who authorises. Markdown.

## What an air-defence system is for

An air-defence system denies airspace over something worth protecting — a site,
a formation, a corridor, an area. Its job is to notice what is coming, work out
what it is, decide whether it is a threat, and stop it before it reaches what is
being defended. Every design is a compromise between how early it can see, how
far out it can reach, and how many things it can handle at once.

## What appears in the air picture

Broadly: fast fixed-wing aircraft; rotary-wing, which is slow and often low;
cruise missiles, which are fast, low and steady; ballistic threats, which arrive
steeply and quickly; and uncrewed aircraft, which range from large and
aircraft-like down to small, slow, low and hard to see, including loitering
munitions that behave like a missile only at the end.

Not everything in the air is a threat. Civil traffic, friendly aircraft,
returning patrols and plain sensor clutter all appear too, and telling them
apart is usually where the difficulty lives.

## The chain from sensor to engagement

Sensors produce returns; returns are correlated into tracks; tracks are
identified; identified tracks are evaluated for threat; a weapon is assigned to
the ones that warrant it; the engagement is carried out; the result is assessed.

Systems differ enormously in which of those steps are automatic and which the
operator performs — and that difference is precisely what to ask about rather
than assume.

## What differs between systems, and must always be asked

These exist in some form everywhere, but the numbers and the answers are never
transferable. Treat every one of them as a question, never as something already
known:

- **How far it detects**, which is not how far it can shoot. Detection range
  sets how much warning the operator gets, and therefore the clock on every
  scenario about time.
- **How far it can engage**, maximum *and* minimum. Many systems cannot engage
  something too close.
- **How many interceptors may be in the air at once**, and how deep the
  magazine is.
- **Time of flight**, which forces the decision earlier than the moment of
  impact.
- **The altitude envelope**, top and bottom.
- **Sensor coverage**: arcs, horizons and terrain shadows. Low and close is
  often seen late.
- **Who may authorise an engagement**, and what changes that — pressure, loss
  of communications, self-defence.
- **Which steps are automatic** and which the operator performs.

Lessons that hold across systems

4 lessons

Things worth knowing that are not about one system. The natural time to add one is straight after an interview, when something has just proved true again.