Defending the attacker.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Air combat has
virtually ceased to exist outside of training exercises, but the
proliferation of surface-to-air guided missiles has ensured that
aircraft are still shot down. In the past quarter-century, over
three quarters of shoot-downs have been by low-cost, widely
available infrared homing, man-portable air-defence systems
(Manpads). The severity of this threat is believed to have been
a major factor in the US Army's decision not to deploy the
Boeing AH-64 Apache to Kosovo in 1999. There are suggestions
that the threat may push military helicopter cruise altitudes
over southwest Asia to much higher levels. It would be difficult
to overstate the importance of defensive aids suites for many
manned aircraft and the larger drones. This also applies to
commercial transports and business jets, although accounts of
around 30 civil aircraft having been shot down by Sams since
1970 (with over 1000 lives lost) include at least two major non-
Manpads accidents: the US Nav