History Main / AntiAir

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[[caption-width-right:270:All together now: [[MoreDakka dakka dakka dakka dakka dakka]]]]

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[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* In one ''{{Punisher}}'' story where Frank infiltrates a Russian nuclear missile silo along with a Special Forces guy, they are trapped in a hangar with only an immobilized tank for defense. So Frank gets behind the machine and mows down the attackers, noting that the gun was [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill originally intended for use against aircraft]].

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[[AC:TabletopRPG]]

[[AC:{{Toys}}]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''MasterOfMagic'' has the "Web" spell in the Nature Magic category, which momentarily immobilizes pretty much any unit. When used against flying enemies, even once they chop their way free of the web strands and can move again, web remnants prevent them from flying again, and they are ground-bound for the rest of the combat.

* ''FinalFantasy'' series

* ''{{Starcraft}}'' - The Terran Missile Turret and Zerg Spore Colony are exclusively anti-air structures. The Zerg have an anti-air suicide unit. The expansion ''Brood War'' gave each race a new flying anti-air only unit, Terrans got the Valkyrie, a ship with a [[MacrossMissileMassacre splash-damage attack]], Protoss got the Corsair, which relies on BeamSpam, and the Zerg got the Devourer, which uses a corrosive attack that slows attack and movement speed and reduces armor, which splashes and can be stacked.

* Allied AEGIS crusers in ''[[CommandAndConquer CommandAndConquer: Red Alert 2]]'' unleash a missile spam on air units, and only them. By comparison, GLA quad guns in ''Generals'' are as efficient on aircrafts as on infantry. As do the [[ChineseWithChopperSupport Chinese]] [[GatlingGood Gat]][[MoreDakka ling]] tank, which can actually ''shred'' infantry divisions with only a handful of them.

[[AC:RealLife]]

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Fighting against [[AirborneMook flying enemies]] is a pain when your own two feet are on the ground while theirs aren't. Either your enemies can swoop down at you swiftly or stay high enough that your attacks probably cannot reach them.

For this situation, you need Anti Air. Basically, this is an attack, weapon, munition, ability, etc. that is really effective against flying enemies. Alternatively, it can be something that brings the flying enemy down to ground and prevents them from flying again temporarily.

A SubTrope of CripplingOverspecialization, since it often applies in a TacticalRockPaperScissors setup where, for example, only one type of ship in an entire RTS navy will actually have ''anything'' it can fire at aircraft. Not true IRL, almost any combat warship carries some sort of AA, CIWS can engage aircraft and so can the dual-purpose guns of some old-school warships, and on the other end of the scale, while a mobile AA gun certainly isn't usually designed for frontline combat they still have [[MoreDakka damn great automatic weapons]] if push comes to shove. It's only really true for missiles. Contrast PointDefenseless.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Of course, this trope is partially justified. Sights on most firearms are not meant for firing into zenith - ballistics is tricky science. Throw in the fact that airplanes have a stalling speed (a minimum speed, below which a plane starts falling) no less than 50 km/h, and it is obvious you'll need a fancy targeting system and a special mount to fire at steep angles. So anti-air artillery is a specialized and (compared to the ground-only systems) rather expensive device. As such, it should be used in its intended capacity first and in all other capacities only as a last ditch effort. If you think about low-caliber artillery or even machineguns in anti-air role, you clearly need MoreDakka to do anything to the aircraft. Of course, this fire rate can be put to use against enemy infantry and (sometimes) light armor to a devastating effect. If you think about medium-caliber anti-air artillery (almost extinct now, to this troper's knowledge), you must have a gun that can hurl a fragmentation round really high, and this means high muzzle velocity. It also helps with targeting, and it can be put to use against enemy armor: armor-piercing spells really can do with that muzzle velocity. So, during the WW2 many anti-air guns were put to anti-tank duty. Some even wound up being mounted on tanks and tank destroyers. German 8.8cm gun is probably the most widely known (but not only) example.
** Once miniaturised radar systems were developed, it was possible to put proximity fuses in pretty much any cannon shell turning any fast-traversing high-angled, long-barrel, high velocity cannon into a potential AA device. The US and UK deployed many cruisers with 5.25" and 6" dual purpose guns, every bit at home with shooting down bombers and blowing up enemy warships.
*** Large caliber guns are still used by the UK today for an AA role. The 4.5 inch Mk 8 Mod. 1 gun fitted to the majority of their frigates and destroyers is able to operate in a proximity fused mode, along with predictive radar aiming in order to act as a rather mean flak cannon. Especially when you consider that it is an auto loading cannon, capable of firing a shell every 2 seconds.

* The "Theater Air Defense" unit in ''{{GURPS}}: Mass Combat'' has a strength of 50000, enough to neutralize an entire enemy air force.
* In ''[[{{Warhammer40000}} Warhammer 40,000]]'', Hydra anti-aircraft tanks fill this role for the Imperial Guard with a [[MoreDakka quadruple-barrel autocannon]]. In a bit of a subversion, not only does it have a hull-mounted heavy bolter for defence, the barrels of its main armament can also traverse low enough to make mincemeat of enemy infantry and light vehicles.
** For that matter, every race has anti-air units. The Space Marines use the Hunter, a tracked missile launcher, the Orks use the Flakwagon, which is an Orky copy of the aforementioned Imperial Guard Hydra, Eldar use Firestorms, hovertanks fitted with long-range scatter lasers, Tau use Skyray missile-armed hovertanks, and the Necrons use their Heavy Destroyers. All of these units avert the CripplingOverspecialization problem by being equally strong (the Skyray, not so much) against ground-based targets. The Hydra in particular finds that enemy hovercraft, which move very fast in three dimensions, behave similarly enough to aircraft that the Hydra shreds both with equal ease.
* You'll find this in ''BattleTech'' too, since fighters are a genuine threat to ground units of all kinds. You'll find air defense tanks as well as anti-air 'Mechs, most of which can be identified quickly by a quad-barrel type arrangement. While most use traditional high explosive shells, some will use lasers instead, these being obviously able to do away with the bothersome trajectory issues of ballistics. Anti-air tank examples include the [[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Partisan Partisan]] and [[http://www.gamer.ru/system/attached_images/images/000/226/899/normal/32_quad_panzer.jpg?1281289616 Quad Panzer.]] Notable anti-air 'Mechs include the [[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Jagermech Jagermech]] and [[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Rifleman Rifleman.]]
** According to the game's rules, LB-X autocannons can be used in an anti-air role, as their fragmenting rounds gain a to-hit bonus against aircraft. This becomes especially useful against any helicopters that make the mistake of sticking around too long.

* Standard to any TowerDefense is the Anti-Air tower, which rapidly destroys air units (but ONLY air units).
* Most [=RTSes=] with ground and air defense as separate buildings use the same principle: Anti-Air does more damage than a tower (and may have other effects such as splash damage, rapid fire...) but provide no defense against ground units.
** ''PlantsVsZombies'' partially avoids the above. The Cactus, which can shoot down [[AirborneMook Balloon Zombies]], can still damage ground units as well. The Cattail can hit any zombie anywhere in the field, airborne or not. Only the Blover is highly specialized to deal with air units, and it still has the secondary effect of [[DefogOfWar temporarily removing mist]].
*** But in a strange twist, the Blover's overspecialization actually cripples the CACTUS too. Balloon Zombies are so rare that it is usually not worth planting a Cactus in each lane to guarantee that you pop their balloons. Blovers are less cost efficient, but you can plant Repeaters or something else with more firepower/other uses instead of the Cactus to use the ''spaces'' more efficiently instead. Not to mention that you need five Cacti to be sure that you don't let anything through which costs 125 sun more compared to just planting Peashooters there instead (for the same firepower but no anti-air capabilities). A Blover, on the other hand, costs 100 sun. So if you only see one wave of Balloon Zombies, the Blover becomes more cost efficient too! Besides, sometimes you just can't afford the extra time it takes to kill one more zombie, so you're really happy that you can instantly kill them with a Blover instead of just grounding them.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'': the move Gravity nullifies Flying type's immunity to Ground attacks. There's also the Iron Ball item that also has the same effects when held.
** The move Roost is a self Anti Air move and it switches the user's Flying type's resistances, weaknesses, and immunities.
* ''AdvanceWars''' Anti-Air units (creatively called Anti-Airs) are essentially [[MoreDakka rapid-fire heavy machine guns]] on tracks. Not only are they devastating against air units, but against infantry and light vehicles as well. Against tanks however...
** The Missile Launcher, meanwhile, is anti-air artillery capable of attacking aircraft up to five squares away. Being a SAM launcher [[CripplingOverspecialisation it cannot attack non-aircraft at all]].

* The ''FinalFantasy'' series has the Aero spells, which are quite effective against flying enemies.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'s'' expansion Brood War gave each race a new flying anti-air only unit, though the Zerg already had an anti-air suicide unit. Terrans got the Valkyrie, a ship with a [[MacrossMissileMassacre splash-damage attack]], Protoss got the Corsair, which relies on BeamSpam, and the Zerg got the Devourer, which uses a corrosive attack that slows attack and movement speed and reduces armor, which splashes and can be stacked.
** The Terran Missile Turret and Zerg Spore Colony are exclusively anti-air structures.
** ''StarCraftII'' also gives each race a flying AA unit: the Terrans get Vikings, which can switch between being anti-air-only fliers or anti-ground-only ground units at will[[hottip:*:with a delay for transformation time, [[CompetitiveBalance of course]]]]. The Protoss get Phoenixes, which are essentially upgraded Corsairs with the ability to suspend ground units in the air temporarily, allowing other AA units to attack them. Finally, the Zerg get Corruptors, similar to Devourers except that their ability only increases the enemy's damage taken, is used separately rather than as an effect added to the basic attack, and doesn't splash or stack.
** The Thor also has a devastating ground-to-air missile barrage attack, designed almost exclusively to take out groups of mutalisks.
* ''{{Warcraft}} 3's'' races all have some form of specialized air defense:

* Allied AEGIS crusers in ''CommandAndConquer: Red Alert 2'' unleash a missile spam on air units, and only them.
** By comparison, GLA quad guns in ''Generals'' are as efficient on aircrafts as on infantry.
** As do the [[ChineseWithChopperSupport Chinese]] [[GatlingGood Gat]][[MoreDakka ling]] tank, which can actually ''shred'' infantry divisions with only a handful of them.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'s'' expansion Brood War gave each race a new flying anti-air only unit, though the Zerg already had an anti-air suicide unit. Terrans got the Valkyrie, a ship with a [[MacrossMissileMassacre splash-damage attack]], Protoss got the Corsair, which relies on BeamSpam, and the Zerg got the Devourer, which uses a corrosive attack that slows attack and movement speed, which splashes and can be stacked.
** Units splashed with Devourer spores are also more vulnerable to damage, devastating when used in conjuction with Mutalisks.

* ''{{Project Reality}}'' has anti-aircraft guns on many of the maps, and even has a class just for this role, toting a shoulder-launched SAM (Surface to Air Missile) such as the American-made FIM-92 Stinger or the Russian-made SA-7 Grail.

* In {{Gadget Trial}}, the Anti-Aircraft Artillery unit is the ''only'' surface (non-air) unit that can engage air units. It's usually a one hit kill, but it's also slow, poorly armored, and incapable of hitting anything else, and air units can take advantage of terrain defense bonuses, so for air defense, the player is advised to stick to fighters.

* ''JointTaskForce'' has the SA-11 Russian SAM launcher. It can devastate flying targets at extreme ranges, but nothing else. You also have to capture it since it is not a NATO unit. On your side, you have the German Gepard Flakpanzer, which uses it´s two 35mm autocannons to great effect against light vehicles, light armor, helicopters, CAS-planes and, of course, Infantry. Tanks and other vehicles can use their mounted Heavy Machine Guns against helicopters for minimal damage, and Helicopters themselves can use their cannons against other helicopters.

* ''JointTaskForce'' has the SA-11 russian SAM launcher. It can devestate flying targets at extreme ranges, but nothing else. You also have to capture it since it is not a NATO unit. On your side, you have the german Gepard Flakpanzer, which uses it´s two 35mm autocannons to great effect against light vehicles, light armor, helicopters, CAS-planes and, of course, Infantry. Tanks and other vehicles can use their mounted Heavy Machine Guns against helicopters for minimal damage, and Helicopters themselfes can use their cannons against other helicopters.

** StarCraftII also gives each race a flying AA unit: the Terrans get Vikings, which can switch between being anti-air-only fliers or anti-ground-only ground units at will[[hottip:*:with a delay for transformation time, [[CompetitiveBalance of course]]]]. The Protoss get Phoenixes, which are essentially upgraded Corsairs with the ability to suspend ground units in the air temporarily, allowing other AA units to attack them. Finally, the Zerg get Corruptors, similar to Devourers except that their ability only increases the enemy's damage taken, is used separately rather than as an effect added to the basic attack, and doesn't splash or stack.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'s'' expansion Brood War gave each race a new anti-air only unit, though the Zerg already had an anti-air suicide unit. Terrans got the Valkyrie, a ship with a [[MacrossMissileMassacre splash-damage attack]], Protoss got the Corsair, which relies on BeamSpam, and the Zerg got the Devourer, which uses a corrosive attack that slows attack and movement speed, which splashes and can be stacked.
** Units splashed with Devourer spores are also more vulnerable do damage, devastating when used in conjuction with Mutalisks.

* In ''MagicTheGathering'', Green magic, being the opposing school of Blue magic, has several ways to specifically deal with flyers. These range from spells that damage or destroys all flying creatures or simply strips them of their Flying attribute, to creatures who could block flying creatures or could be tapped to deal direct damage to them.

** ''PlantsVsZombies'' partially avoids the above. The Cactus, which can shoot down [[AirborneMook Balloon Zombies]], can still damage ground units as well. The Cattail can hit any zombie anywhere in the field, airborne or not. Only the Blover is highly specialized to deal with air units, and it still has the secondary effect of temporarily removing mist.

A SubTrope of CripplingOverspecialization, since it often applies in a TacticalRockPaperScissors setup where, for example, only one type of ship in an entire RTS navy will actually have ''anything'' it can fire at aircraft. Not true IRL, almost any combat warship carries some sort of AA, CIWS can engage aircraft and so can the dual-purpose guns of some old-school warships, and on the other end of the scale, while a mobile AA gun certainly isn't usually designed for frontline combat they still have [[MoreDakka damn great automatic weapons]] if push comes to shove. It's only really true for missiles.

Contrast PointDefenseless

[[{{Warhammer 40000}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hydraft_6264.jpg]]
[[caption-width:270:All together now: [[MoreDakka dakka dakka dakka dakka dakka]]]]

* ''OperationFlashpoint'' features classic RealLife self-propelled AA artillery vehicles of its ColdWar era setting : The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZSU-23-4_Shilka ZSU-23-4 "Shilka"]] on the Soviet side and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M163_VADS M163 VADS "Vulcan"]] on the NATO side.

* Of course, this trope is partially justified. Sights on most firearms are not meant for firing into zenith - ballistics is tricky science. Throw in the fact that airplanes have a stalling speed (a minimum speed, below which a plane starts falling) no less than 50 km/h, and it is obvious you'll need a fancy targeting system and a special mount to fire at steep angles. So anti-air artillery is a specialized and (compared to the ground-only systems) rather expensive device. As such, it should be used in its intended capacity first and in all other capacities. If you think about low-caliber artillery or even machineguns in anti-air role, you clearly need MoreDakka to do anything to the aircraft. Of course, this fire rate can be put to use against enemy infantry and (sometimes) light armor to a devastating effect. If you think about medium-caliber anti-air artillery (almost extinct now, to this troper's knowledge), you must have a gun that can hurl a fragmentation round really high, and this means high muzzle velocity. It also helps with targeting, and it can be put to use against enemy armor: armor-piercing spells really can do with that muzzle velocity. So, during the WW2 many anti-air guns were put to anti-tank duty. Some even wound up being mounted on tanks and tank destroyers. German 8.8cm gun is probably the most widely known (but not only) example.

** Once miniaturised radar systems were developed, it was possible to put proximity fuses in pretty much any cannon shell turning any fast-traversing high-angled long-barelled high velocity cannon into a potential AA device. The US and UK deployed many cruisers with 5.25" and 6" dual purpose guns, every bit at home with shooting down bombers and blowing up enemy warships.

* In one {{Punisher}} story where Frank infiltrates a Russian nuclear missile silo along with a Special Forces guy, they are trapped in a hangar with only an immobilized tank for defense. So Frank gets behind the machine and mows down the attackers, noting that the gun was [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill originally intended for use against aircraft]].