Protecting Tankers & Lifters: Enhanced Missile Defense Capabilities Needed

High-value airborne assets like tankers and cargo aircraft face unprecedented threats from advanced peer and near-peer adversaries. As China and Russia proliferate long-range surface-to-air and air-to-air missiles with extended reach, traditional defensive sanctuaries are disappearing. BAE Systems experts discuss why these critical enablers of power projection need layered electromagnetic and kinetic protection—and the retrofit challenges involved in defending legacy platforms designed for contested environments.