History Main / AntiAir

* A major drive in ''Film/CharlieWilsonsWar'' is the need to find a weapon the Afghans can use to shoot down Soviet Hind gunships, which are armoured against anything up to .50 calibre. It turns out to be the Stinger AA missile.

** The Covenant also have the Mantis and the Tyrant, both stationary anti-air plasma cannons, with the Tyrant being the heavier of the two. They're a lot more effective at their job than the AA Wraith.

* ''[[Videogame/MechWarrior MechWarrior Living Legends]]'' has the Huitzilopitchli and Partisan anti-air tanks. [[MoreDakka They spew out hilarious amounts of ammunition at anything that flies]], and are [[InstantDeathRadius surprisingly effective]] against [[PoweredArmor battlearmor]]. The Rifleman [[HumongousMecha battlemech]] is an anti-air battlemech - it's overall less powerful than the tanks, but is faster and has a much more stable firing platform which can peak over hills. Some regular assets mounting the LB-X shotguns or a [[MagneticWeapon Heavy Gauss Rifle]] can deal crazy amounts of damage to dive-bombing aircraft, but most lack the necessary max pitch to be able to hit the high-altitude aircraft.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' metaseries, most [[TheBattlestar MS carriers]] use [[MoreDakka vulcans]] or [[FrickinLaserBeams laser guns]] as anti-aircraft defense. Probably the clearest illustration comes in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'', where the Minerva's CIWS shreds a Murasame rather viscerally.

* Many fighting games have attacks that are best used against those that like to "jump in," such as Ken and Ryu's {{Shoryuken}} and Guile's Flash Kick from ''StreetFighter'', the standard uppercut from ''Franchise/MortalKombat'', and a good number of others.

** "Brig Break" begins with a JAG investigation concerning a [[ChekhovsGun missing Stinger missile]] before [[GonnaNeedABiggerWarrant the titular brig break occurs]]. The missing Stinger launcher is used on a Sea Stallion helicopter pursuing the villains. [[spoiler:But it was sabotaged so the warhead didn't go off.]]

* ''Videogame/DigitalCombatSimulator'' features [=SAM=] sites and Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Fortunately, thanks in part to [[ArtificialStupidity]], the [=SAM=]s keep their targeting radars on all the time, allowing them to be taken out completely with anti-radiation missiles.

* ''[[Videogame/DigitalCombatSimulator]]'' features [=SAM=] sites and Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Fortunately, thanks in part to [[ArtificialStupidity]], the [=SAM=]s keep their targeting radars on all the time, allowing them to be taken out completely with anti-radiation missiles.

[[quoteright:270:[[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hydraft_6264.jpg]]]]

* Carriers in the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series are capable of mounting massed anti-fighter weapons, such as the Starburst Shockwave Cannon, Flak Artillery Array, or the [[WaveMotionGun Phased Shockwave Generator]], all of which slaughter any fighter dumb enough to get close with extremely fast, high-explosive splash damage bolts. Destroyers and frigates typically have to make-do with flak coverage only on their topside and bottom.

** There's an enemy that's like this towards the player. The [[CreepyCentipedes Crawltipedes]] that appear when fighting the Solar Pillar will ignore any grounded player, but if a player takes to the air, they will home in on said player ''very quickly'' and deal an incredible amount of constant CollisionDamage.

** In ''[[ComicBook/XWingSeries Isard's Revenge]]'', Corran's X-Wing is seriously damaged by a stormtrooper using a [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/PLX-2M_portable_missile_launcher shoulder-fired missile]]. Corran manages to make an emergency landing.

* ''In Honour Bound'' by Gerald Seymour involves a British SAS man going into Soviet-occupied Afghanistan to shoot down a Hind gunship so its secrets can be photographed and brought back for British intelligence. Given that he's only got an obsolete Redeye missile launcher for PlausibleDeniability and is up against the most feared helicopter gunship of the day, this is not easy.

** That said, during the UsefulNotes/SecondWorldWar, AA guns of all types were successfully repurposed as ground weapons. In the case of larger, heavy anti-aircraft guns, it was found that their high muzzle velocity and heavy shell weights allowed them to punch through armour that earlier, specially-designed anti-tank guns (which were easier to handle but less powerful) could not penetrate. The German 88mm gun is the most famous example of this, in large part because its mountings actually made it a lot easier to use in this capacity, and because of its effectiveness against the Soviet T-34 (arguably the best medium tank of the war), was adapted to become the main gun of the Tiger heavy tank. Similarly, light anti-aircraft autocannons, with their high muzzle velocities, rapid rates of fire, and ability to fire a variety of different projectiles, proved to be particularly effective against a wide range of ground targets.

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': The Torchmen of Mechanicsburg are the formidable city's primary air defense system, and are widely feared throughout Europa. Prior to the Castle's near destruction, old airshipmen had a bit of poem they all memorized which demonstrates that just the treat of the Torchmen was enough to keep everyone who didn't have a death wish out of Mechanicsburg airspace. This despite the ubiquitous nature of military airships in the setting.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has many abilities that disable flight. A bit too many. Did you know getting hit with a slab of rock will prevent you from flying 20 seconds after impact? These were mostly added to balance PvP, but no one takes flight in PvP anyway because there are too many counters.

* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' the Torchmen of Mechanicsburg are the formidable city's primary air defense system and are widely feared throughout Europa. Prior to the Castle's near destruction old airshipmen had a bit of poem they all memorized which demonstrates that just the treat of the Torchmen was enough to keep everyone who didn't have a death wish out of Mechanicsburg airspace despite the ubiquitous nature of military airships in the setting:
-->''If you'd live to see the end of day,\\
from Mechanicsburg two leagues stay.''

** As it includes the original ''Macross'', ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' also has the Defender, plus a few other additions put on the various ships' hulls. This makes quite painful how the ships of the [[Anime/GenesisClimberMospeada third series]] are PointDefenseless in spite of fighting an enemy that relies ''exclusively'' on massed fighter attacks.

*** It's also subverted by most units in the game, since the two-weapon system allows some units a choice between anti-air and anti-ground, for example, the Chopper-VX, which is normally an anti-ground chopper but can be switched to an anti-air walker at will.
*** This can lead to some interesting stalemates, where a Chopper-VX in walker form encounters an enemy ant-air unit, as the only way for it to attack a ground unit is in chopper form, but changing to chopper form will let the enemy unit return fire.

* ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'' 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, they are rubbish and they cannot even attack ships. 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]]. ''Days of Ruin'' increases their range to up to six squares away.

* ''VideoGame/TransformersPreludeToEnergon'' features the tiny purple [[EquippableAlly Minicon]] Airburst, whose special ability is turning into a flak cannon capable of [[OneHitKill one-shotting]] any common aerial enemy, such as the annoying [[GoddamnedBats Jet Snipers]], with ease.

* ''VideoGame/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 they are rubbish. 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]].
* In ''VideoGame/GadgetTrial'', 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, cannot fire after moving, and incapable of hitting anything else, and unlike in VideoGame/AdvanceWars, air units can take advantage of terrain defense bonuses, so for air defense, the player is advised to stick to fighters.

** Wakka from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' specializes in striking airborne enemies as his basic physical attack. Other characters suffer a drop in accuracy against flying foes.

* Many fighting games have attacks that are best used against those that like to "jump in," such as Ken and Ryu's {{Shoryuken}} and Guile's Flash Kick from ''StreetFighter'', the standard uppercut from ''MortalKombat'', and a good number of others.

* The ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series is an alternate-history version of the Napoleonic Wars that gives the various players aerial corps populated with dragons trained for combat and aerial defense. However, the smaller dragons can still go down to cannonballs like anything else, and pepper guns, which literally [[PepperSneeze shoot ground peppercorns at dragons to irritate their eyes and airways]], are common on warships and are an essential part of any anti-dragon compliment. One advocate for dragon rights fights so fiercely for dragons to work outside the military or without riders because she has seen the advancement of technology in firearms and the invention of pepper guns. She posits that there will come a day when a weapon will come about that can kill even the biggest dragons, crew and all, BreathWeapon or no, in a single strike mid-flight, and then where will that leave dragons?