Originally Posted by
Pontius Navigator
Declan, exactly. The only issue I have with what you say is based on my ignorance of the facts. You mention a non-squawking aircraft. That predicates a primary radar system. Does Ireland possess such a system?
No, unfortunately all the main infrastructure would have to be purchased in one go. As a package, it starts to get expensive quickly!
It’s the big problem with building a capability from scratch. At the very least, you have to shell out for radar, aircraft, hangerage, upgraded weapons storage etc at the same time, or over the same period. If you have an existing system in place, or assets with overlapping capabilities you can avoid much of that, but you would’ve had to start buying modern equipment fifty years ago for that to help now.