Anti-air warfare at sea: raising the game
Asian navies are catching up to Western anti-air-warfare capabilities, according to The Military Balance 2019. And European vessels would face a particular disadvantage in high-intensity confrontations at sea.
The United States Navy remains by a significant margin the global leader in terms of high-capability anti-air-warfare surface combatants. But Asian navies have been building more of these vessels of late, in some ways now outstripping Europe.
In the 1980s, the US Navy ushered in a step-change in surface ship anti-air-warfare capabilities by bringing into service the Aegis combat system. Aegis was developed in response to a significantly increased threat from aircraft and anti-ship missiles, particularly of saturation attack. It comprised phased-array radars and an integrated combat system, as well as better surface-to-air missiles, to improve processing, reaction time and channels of fire, and to provide an extended engagement envelope. Shortly after, as a further significant enhancement, came the introduction of the multiple-cell vertical launch system (VLS) in place of trainable twin-arm missile launchers.
https://www.iiss.org/blogs/military-balance/2019/02/anti-air-warfare-asia-raising-game