Multilayered protection

Conventional threats and use of air defence systems For most nations air defence is a multilayered proposition. Given the threat perception most nations have to set up a triple barrier of surface-to-air missiles capable of stopping an enemy barrage at high altitude, at medium altitude, and, as a last resort, at very short distances from the intended target. Most nations confront only a conventional weapons threat of high-explosive warheads intended to demolish the landscape and personnel and weapons within its blast profile; bunker busters that dig deep into the earth to reach the command and control networks; and cruise missiles and air-delivered precision-guided munitions that come in very low and leave very little reaction time for last-minute interception that nonetheless remain strictly within the conventional weapons threshold. India, on the other hand, has to deal with both the conventional threat as well as a total war of nuclear proportions from two directions from neighbours armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons of various ranges and trajectories.

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