Anti-aircraft artillery

Anti-aircraft artillery

Anti-aircraft artillery is artillery which is designed to shoot down aircraft. Other names are triple-A (from its initials AAA), air defence artillery, and flak (from German Flak, short for Fliegerabwehrkanone, meaning anti-aircraft gun).

There are two main forms of anti-aircraft artillery: single-shot, and autocannon.

Single-shot weapons were popular during World War II but are little used now. They fire one shell at a time at an aircraft. The shell is usually fitted with different types of fuzes (barometric (air pressure), time-delay, or proximity) to send exploding "flak" into a specified area. A good example is the German 88 mm gun.

See also