In previous wars the radar systems to locate enemy aircraft were located away from the anti-aircraft SAM sites. The enemy would leave the radar system off until the aircraft were very close and then flip the switch to turn it on, paint the target and then launch, as soon as possible. This made it hard for the striking force to find the target without using itself as bait, quite a deadly game of cat and mouse. With mobile missile launchers the defending nation believes it has the advantage and where as it does have "an" advantage it does not have "the" advantage and there is a huge difference.
Currently some nations are developing robotic mobile anti-aircraft missile launchers which have a very long fiber optic cable. The robotic missile launcher will be displaced to predetermined locations and rotate its position every three or four days. The robot will stick a stake in the ground which will allow communication with its tele-robotic operator and then unwind a 1/2 to 1 mile long cable as it goes. Any communication electronic signature will show up at the stake and not at the mobile missile launcher. Provided the unit has excellent camouflage and cover, it will greatly increase its survival rate.
One of the systems being designed now uses 3G + wireless phone technologies, but the defending nation must realize that those wireless phone towers will be first on the list as targets, because the potential disruptions of the cell-tower plume and cellular signals by stealth fighter might be enough to help track them or might help track terrain following stealth unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs).
Tele-robotics in without communication just leaves one more sitting duck target for the striking forces. These technologies need to be re-thought completely. Tele-robotic systems in the battlespace make sense if you are in control of the communications system, but when you are the defender under attack from a modern strike force, that is the first thing that goes - all your communication and thus collapse of command and control, chaos and loss of the battle.
"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington
Source: www.articlesbase.com
