What makes a weapon anti-air or anti-tank? Would anti-air be effective against tanks? Could we create one weapon that covers both, or even all possible targets?

Question

What makes a weapon anti-air or anti-tank? Would anti-air be effective against tanks? Could we create one weapon that covers both, or even all possible targets?

In: 864

Answer 1

As others have said, tanks and aircraft present different challenges.

Aircraft are fragile, fast, manoeuvrable and usually high up in the air, while tanks are heavily armoured, robust and almost always on the ground.

There are some exceptions to the rule, mostly guns that are high velocity. This makes it easier to shoot shells high up in the air and to hit things that are fast or agile, and it also makes them good for punching through armour.

So a number of anti-aircraft guns were put into service as anti-tank weapons in WW2 (albeit with different ammunition, as /u/toffeemanstan notes). The most famous is the German flak-88, but the Russians and Americans did the same. As planes have flown higher and faster, this kind of AA gun has become obsolete.

There’s also at least one missile system, ADATS, that was designed as a dual-purpose weapon but I’m not sure it was ever adopted. The extra cost or limitations outweighed the advantages.

One other thing to note is that when we say “aircraft” we don’t just mean planes. Helicopters are a little bit of a special case, since they fly more slowly and often lower. So they can still be vulnerable to high velocity guns. In theory both the autocannons on infantry fighting and scout vehicles and the cannons on main battle tanks can be used against helicopters, though I don’t know if this has been done much in practice. Some anti-tank guided missiles can also be used against helicopters (many can be used against anything you can keep the crosshairs on), and I think there are some examples from Ukraine of this actually being done.