Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Hardened Aircraft Shelter shopping experience:
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2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Hardened Aircraft Shelter? Wrong! If the Hardened Aircraft Shelter is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Hardened Aircraft Shelter then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Hardened Aircraft Shelter? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Hardened Aircraft Shelter and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Hardened Aircraft Shelter wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Hardened Aircraft Shelter then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Hardened Aircraft Shelter site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Hardened Aircraft Shelter, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Hardened Aircraft Shelter, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
A
Hardened Aircraft Shelter (HAS), or
Protective Aircraft Shelter (PAS), is a structure which houses and protects military aircraft from enemy attack. Cost considerations and building practicalities limit their use to Fighter aircraft size aircraft.
Background
HASs are a passive defence measure, i.e. they limit the effect of an attack, as opposed to active defences (e.g.
Surface-to-air missiles) which aim to prevent or at least degrade enemy attacks. The widespread adoption of Hardened Aircraft Shelters can be traced back to the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War when the Israeli Air Force decimated the
Egyptian Air Force at its bases, at the time the largest and most advanced air force in the Arab world.
Like many military items; be it a structure,
tank or aircraft, its most prolific use was during the Cold War.
NATO and
Warsaw Pact countries built hundreds of HAS across Europe. In this context Hardened Aircraft Shelters were built to protect aircraft from both conventional attacks as well as nuclear weapon, chemical warfare and
biological warfare strikes. NATO shelters, built to standard designs across the continent, were designed to withstand a direct hit by a 500 lb (226 kg) bomb or a near miss by a larger one (i.e. 1,000 lb+). In theory HAS were also built to protect aircraft in a nuclear strike; however the effect of this on airfield taxiways, runways, support facilities and personnel would have made one retaliatory mission extremely difficult and subsequent return and rearming almost impossible.
In the post-cold war era the value of the HAS concept was further eroded with the introduction of
precision guided munitions.
Iraq's HAS hangers were built to a standard somewhat higher than NATO or Warsaw Pact shelters, but nevertheless proved almost useless during the
Gulf War. Early attempts to defeat them typically used a "one-two punch" using a TV guided missile to blast open the doors, followed by bombs tossed in the front. US efforts soon turned to simply dropping a 2,000 lb
laser guided bomb on the top, which would easily penetrate the roof and explode within. Although NATO
hangars would remain useful against any conceivable attack on Europe in the short term (which would generally lack precision guidance systems), the value of HAS hangers against western air forces is effectively zero.
Advantages
- Reduces vulnerability of aircraft to all but the most accurate precision weaponry
- Combined with active airfield defences increases survivability of defender's aircraft and cost to enemy's forces.
- An alternative option, dispersal of aircraft to many different bases, reduces the efficiency of aircraft at both squadron and air force level.
- Nuclear weapons can be stored in the HAS near the aircraft, in a vault, e.g. the United States Air Force WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System.
Disadvantages
- Expensive
- Large aircraft can not be easily accommodated in hardened shelters due to their size. Ironically this includes some of the world's air forces' most valuable planes, e.g.
- Time taken for construction requires forward planning regarding most likely combat zones. If a conflict flares up quickly aircraft may be afforded no protection, e.g. in both the Gulf War and 2003 Iraq War many coalition aircraft had only sun shelters, not hardened facilities.
- When first developed, the likelihood of a direct hit was minimal. Today, with Precision-guided munitions (PGMs) and adequate training, delivering a direct hit on a HAS is trivial. Coalition aircraft destroyed over half of Iraq's HASs during the Gulf War.
- Germany's Luftwaffe has conducted tests to establish the effect of humidity inside a shelter on its aircraft's avionics. Results suggested the higher relative humidity has a higher corrosive effect than outside its shelters. Supply of dry air to avionics compartments has decreased corrosion and increased serviceability.
Alternatives
Kevlar lined deployable shelters could protect aircraft from Submunition (a common anti-airfield weapon). However this would provide no protection from PGMs.
Wider dispersal (distance between aircraft) at airfields would decrease the vulnerability of aircraft. This would also force an enemy to increase the number of attacking aircraft greatly or spend more time over the target. Either way the effect of airfield defences would take a heavy toll on the aggressor. However like HAS, dispersal can be expensive, requiring massive construction of hardstanding.
Dispersing aircraft between many bases greatly increases the cost of attacking a given number of aircraft, as measured by the number of attack aircraft required. However, this option similarly increases the defenders' cost of operation and degrades their efficiency.
A
Hardened Aircraft Shelter (HAS), or
Protective Aircraft Shelter (PAS), is a structure which houses and protects military aircraft from enemy attack. Cost considerations and building practicalities limit their use to Fighter aircraft size aircraft.
Background
HASs are a passive defence measure, i.e. they limit the effect of an attack, as opposed to active defences (e.g.
Surface-to-air missiles) which aim to prevent or at least degrade enemy attacks. The widespread adoption of Hardened Aircraft Shelters can be traced back to the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War when the Israeli Air Force decimated the
Egyptian Air Force at its bases, at the time the largest and most advanced air force in the Arab world.
Like many military items; be it a structure, tank or aircraft, its most prolific use was during the
Cold War. NATO and Warsaw Pact countries built hundreds of HAS across Europe. In this context Hardened Aircraft Shelters were built to protect aircraft from both conventional attacks as well as
nuclear weapon,
chemical warfare and
biological warfare strikes. NATO shelters, built to standard designs across the continent, were designed to withstand a direct hit by a 500 lb (226 kg) bomb or a near miss by a larger one (i.e. 1,000 lb+). In theory HAS were also built to protect aircraft in a nuclear strike; however the effect of this on airfield taxiways, runways, support facilities and personnel would have made one retaliatory mission extremely difficult and subsequent return and rearming almost impossible.
In the post-cold war era the value of the HAS concept was further eroded with the introduction of precision guided munitions.
Iraq's HAS hangers were built to a standard somewhat higher than NATO or Warsaw Pact shelters, but nevertheless proved almost useless during the Gulf War. Early attempts to defeat them typically used a "one-two punch" using a
TV guided missile to blast open the doors, followed by bombs tossed in the front. US efforts soon turned to simply dropping a 2,000 lb laser guided bomb on the top, which would easily penetrate the roof and explode within. Although NATO
hangars would remain useful against any conceivable attack on Europe in the short term (which would generally lack precision guidance systems), the value of HAS hangers against western air forces is effectively zero.
Advantages
- Reduces vulnerability of aircraft to all but the most accurate precision weaponry
- Combined with active airfield defences increases survivability of defender's aircraft and cost to enemy's forces.
- An alternative option, dispersal of aircraft to many different bases, reduces the efficiency of aircraft at both squadron and air force level.
- Nuclear weapons can be stored in the HAS near the aircraft, in a vault, e.g. the United States Air Force WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System.
Disadvantages
- Expensive
- Large aircraft can not be easily accommodated in hardened shelters due to their size. Ironically this includes some of the world's air forces' most valuable planes, e.g.
- Airborne Early Warning/AWACS
- Strategic transports
- JSTARS
- Time taken for construction requires forward planning regarding most likely combat zones. If a conflict flares up quickly aircraft may be afforded no protection, e.g. in both the Gulf War and 2003 Iraq War many coalition aircraft had only sun shelters, not hardened facilities.
- When first developed, the likelihood of a direct hit was minimal. Today, with Precision-guided munitions (PGMs) and adequate training, delivering a direct hit on a HAS is trivial. Coalition aircraft destroyed over half of Iraq's HASs during the Gulf War.
- Germany's Luftwaffe has conducted tests to establish the effect of humidity inside a shelter on its aircraft's avionics. Results suggested the higher relative humidity has a higher corrosive effect than outside its shelters. Supply of dry air to avionics compartments has decreased corrosion and increased serviceability.
Alternatives
Kevlar lined deployable shelters could protect aircraft from Submunition (a common anti-airfield weapon). However this would provide no protection from PGMs.
Wider dispersal (distance between aircraft) at airfields would decrease the vulnerability of aircraft. This would also force an enemy to increase the number of attacking aircraft greatly or spend more time over the target. Either way the effect of airfield defences would take a heavy toll on the aggressor. However like HAS, dispersal can be expensive, requiring massive construction of hardstanding.
Dispersing aircraft between many bases greatly increases the cost of attacking a given number of aircraft, as measured by the number of attack aircraft required. However, this option similarly increases the defenders' cost of operation and degrades their efficiency.
