Defining the Boundaries of the Active Zones of Destruction of Anti-Aircraft Firepower in the Surface Ship’s Air Defense System when Repelling Attacks by Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles

The proposed study is aimed at determining the boundaries of the active destruction zones of anti-aircraft fire power in the air defense system of surface ships when repelling attacks by anti-ship cruise missiles. The purpose of the study was to determine the boundaries of the anti-aircraft fire effective zones in the air defense system and taking into account their impact on the combat capability of the surface ship order when repelling attacks by anti-ship cruise missiles in various tactical conditions. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the detailed consideration of the own destruction zones parameters of anti-aircraft fire weapons, ranges of detection, attack directions, and task fulfillment boundaries for attacking anti-ship cruise missiles, coordination of own hit zones and firing sectors, forbidden firing sectors in the interests of the safety of neighboring ships in the order, as well as prohibited sectors caused by electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) violations of electronic warfare (EW) equipment and anti-aircraft fire weapons, security measures for guiding fighter aircraft, and taking into account the impact of all these parameters on the combat capability of both existing and future ships in the order. Knowing the boundaries of the active kill zones allows you to calculate the number of firings and evaluate the effectiveness of anti-aircraft firing when repelling attacks by anti-ship cruise missiles, to solve the problems of optimizing the readiness mode and target allocation of anti-aircraft weapons, tasks of optimizing the air defense system of a squadron of surface ships when repelling attacks by anti-ship cruise missiles, both during the planning stage of military operations and during air combat. The results of simulation modeling published in classified publications and conducted with specific weapons in mind, installed on both existing ships and ships of advanced projects, it has been fully confirmed that incorrect accounting or ignoring the boundaries of the effective zones of anti-aircraft fire weapons in the ship (or ship formations) air defense system when repelling attacks by anti-ship cruise missiles do not allow to fully realize the combat capabilities of the contour (system) of air defense and leads to the loss of combat capability of the ship (order of ships).