Point-defence is the defence of a single object or a limited area, e.g. a ship, building or an airfield, now usually against air attacks and guided missile

Guided Missile

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s. Point-defence weapons have a smaller range in contrast to area-defence systems and are placed near or on the object to be protected.

Point-defence may include:

• short-ranged interceptor aircraft
  Interceptor aircraft
  An interceptor aircraft is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to prevent missions of enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Interceptors generally rely on high speed and powerful armament in order to complete their mission as quickly as possible and set up...
  
  
• Close-in weapon system
  Close-in weapon system
  A close-in weapon system , often pronounced sea-whiz, is a naval shipboard point-defense weapon for detecting and destroying at short range incoming anti-ship missiles and enemy aircraft which have penetrated the outer defenses....
  
  s on ships
• land-based short-ranged anti-aircraft guns or surface-to-air missile
  Surface-to-air missile
  A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
  
   systems
• Active protection system
  Active protection system
  An active protection system is a system designed to prevent sensor-based weapons from acquiring and/or destroying a target....
  
  s on tanks or other armoured fighting vehicles

Coastal artillery

Coastal artillery

Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications....

 to protect harbours is similar conceptually, but is generally not classified as point-defence. Similarly, passive systems - electronic countermeasures

Electronic countermeasures

An electronic countermeasure is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar or other detection systems, like infrared or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting information to an enemy...

, decoys, chaff

Chaff (radar countermeasure)

Chaff, originally called Window by the British, and Düppel by the Second World War era German Luftwaffe , is a radar countermeasure in which aircraft or other targets spread a cloud of small, thin pieces of aluminium, metallized glass fibre or plastic, which either appears as a cluster of secondary...

, flare

Flare (pyrotechnic)

A flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signalling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications...

s, barrage balloon

Barrage balloon

A barrage balloon is a large balloon tethered with metal cables, used to defend against low-level aircraft attack by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker's approach more difficult. Some versions carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up...

s - are not considered point-defence.

Examples

• Goalkeeper CIWS
  Goalkeeper CIWS
  Goalkeeper is a Dutch close-in weapon system introduced in 1979 and in use , which primarily defends ships against incoming missiles and ballistic shells. This system consists of an autocannon and an advanced radar which in typically six seconds detects incoming fire, determines its trajectory,...
  
   - Gun CIWS in current service by the Dutch navy.
• Kashtan CIWS
  Kashtan CIWS
  The Kashtan Close-in weapon system is a modern naval air defence gun-missile system deployed by the Russian Navy.It is found on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, Kirov class battlecruisers, Neustrashimy class, People's Liberation Army Navy Sovremenny class destroyers and Indian Talwar...
  
   - Gun-Missile CIWS in current service by the Russian navy.
• RIM-116 RAM
  RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile
  The RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile is a small, lightweight, infrared homing surface-to-air missile in use by the American, German, South Korean, Greek, Turkish, Saudi and Egyptian navies. It was intended originally and used primarily as a point-defense weapon against anti-ship cruise missiles...
  
   - Missile CIWS in current use by the US Navy.
• Type 730 - in current use by the Chinese Navy.
• Arena APS
  Arena Active Protection System
  The Arena is an active protection system developed at Russia's Kolomna-based Engineering Design Bureau for the purpose of protecting armoured fighting vehicles from destruction by light anti-tank weapons, anti-tank guided missiles , and missiles with top attack warheads. It uses a Doppler radar...
  
   - a Russian point defence system for individual armoured vehicles.
• Metal Storm
  Metal Storm
  Metal Storm Limited is a Brisbane, Australia based research and development company that specializes in electronically initiated superposed load weapons technology and owns the proprietary rights to the electronic ballistics technology invented by J. Mike O'Dwyer. Metal Storm represents both the...
  
  - Another point defence/CIWS system currently in development.