Second World War defenses progressively broke raids into smaller formations before close-range guns drove off or destroyed surviving aircraft. Modern layers instead expect fighters, area-defense missiles, point-defense missiles, and close-in systems to score repeated kills. Once the larger missile magazines are exhausted, the remaining layers rapidly inherit more attackers. Reloading vertical launch cells at sea is far harder than rearming aircraft, while industry can replace shells faster than complex missiles, making magazine depth central to a long war.
Notable Point · 1:07:24-1:10:16
Layered air defense fails when missile magazines empty
Modern defensive layers aim to destroy every attacker, but limited missile magazines and difficult VLS reloading threaten endurance in a long war.