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Most defensive systems do not have the ability to engage multiple offensive missiles in azimuth simultaneously. This is due to several reasons. All offensive missiles in the raid will not be detected simultaneously due to radar search patterns and the stochastic nature of the detection process. Usually, weapons can only be launched one at a time at an interval determined by the missile launcher salvo time. 2 Air Defense Environment The environment can and will have significant performance impacts on a defense system.

Other techniques related to the offensive missile seeker involve tilting the seeker when it is not active and the use of a seeker radome constructed of a frequency selective ­surface (FSS). Tilting the seeker will reduce the in-band forward aspect radar cross section. In-band refers to the offensive missile seeker band, which may be different from the air defense radar band. This is essentially a simple shaping technique that directs most of the radar energy at bistatic angles to minimize the monostatic radar cross section.

This is simply not the metric that defines the trade space accurately. This comparison epitomizes the old saying—This is like comparing apples to oranges. The accurate cost-effectiveness trade space in engineering terms is 34 Air and Missile Defense Systems Engineering the cost ratio of expended engagement asset to the protected asset. This is an important distinction. The costs for the user nation to build, deploy, and expend the inbound missile are not a relevant factor. There is no correlation between how much it costs one nation to build a particular missile in terms of both real dollars and with respect to their gross domestic product and another nation to build and deploy the exact same missile and more importantly the AMD system necessary to defeat it.