Political and technological developments of the past few years will have a profound effect on future combat situations for the U.S. Navy. Most of the envisioned combat situations will involve unpredictable near-land engagement scenarios. These types of scenarios place an increased emphasis on the short-range antiair warfare (AAW), or self-defense, capabilities of U.S. Navy surface combatants. Ship self-defense capabilities have already been stressed by the development of small, fast, highly maneuverable, low-flying antiship missiles. It is with these factors in mind that NSWCDD has participated in missile weapon systems engineering analysis. This article presents some of the analysis that has been performed in the short-range AAW subject area. The dominant technical challenges which encompass the ship self-defense problem are discussed and characterized.
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