A new air defence strategy title created by a former RAF radar specialist has arrived on Steam, giving players the chance to run a national air defence network from the command chair rather than the cockpit.
Air Defender, developed by Allan Akers under the label ROTOR3, entered Early Access on 28 November and has already drawn positive reviews from players impressed by its realism and tension.
Akers, an RAF veteran with operational radar experience, has spent years building the game around the real pressures of air defence decision making. Instead of flying a fighter jet, players operate as the commander responsible for interpreting radar returns, classifying unknown tracks, and issuing rapid orders to Quick Reaction Alert aircraft when something appears on the scope. The focus is on the unseen side of air operations: uncertainty, time pressure, and the consequences of choosing too early or too late.
According to its Steam description, Air Defender puts the player in charge of a national air defence network in real time. The game blends command-and-control tasks, identification procedures, information warfare considerations, and interceptor management into a single interface that mirrors a working bunker. Players must review radar plots, interpret Identification Friend or Foe data, watch for potential electronic warfare interference, and weigh up how to respond as contacts move across the airspace.
Key mechanics include analysing radar returns, scrambling QRA fighters to shadow or investigate unknown aircraft, managing fuel and mission timelines, and juggling competing threats. The game uses a dynamic adversary system that adapts to the player’s decisions rather than following scripted paths, which gives each session a distinct pattern. Although inspired by professional procedures, the interface remains clear enough that newcomers can learn quickly, and structured training missions are included alongside an open-ended mode.
Akers explains his reasoning for launching through Early Access: “Since its inception, Air Defender has had a fantastic response from many people across the globe, and now has an active and growing community of supporters who have given lots of feedback for feature improvements in the game. Early Access will give the community hands-on experience whilst it is still in development, and will allow the features to be further improved with their feedback.”
The full release is planned to include a complete training suite and an expanded selection of maps, giving even inexperienced players an accessible route into understanding air policing concepts and the wider world of air defence. For now, the Early Access version is already functional, stable, and receiving weekly feedback from its growing community.
Despite the depth of the systems involved, the game has modest hardware demands. The minimum requirements are a four-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and a DirectX 11 graphics card with 1 GB of VRAM. Recommended specifications raise that to modern six-core processors and GPUs with 2 GB of VRAM or more. Storage needs sit at just 1 GB, making the game accessible for most systems.
Behind the project is Akers himself, drawing directly on his RAF background to shape intercept timelines, threat behaviour, and radar modelling. His goal is to provide a window into the decision making usually hidden behind closed doors in command centres. The result is a thoughtful, demanding, and unusually grounded strategy experience.
What a cool concept, hope his game sells!
I hope it raises the issues in the public mind so questions are asked as to why UK air defence relies on QRA and T45 exclusively.
Set in the 1990s, so based on Tornado F3 at present. It sounds like they’ll add new assets later down the roadmap.
This looks like great fun, it will be very interesting once fully developed and the bugs are all squashed.
It would be very cool if modding were available, as trying new ideas for systems out in realistic scenarios would I suspect be the main focus of the readership here on UKDJ.
Probably the best Air Defence preparation we will ever get.
I’ll check this out, it sounds like what I’m looking for. I can imagine Easy difficulty will give us the RAF of the Cold War’s height, and the hardest difficulty level will give us today’s air force.
“Can you defeat Russia and China with six planes? Feel the tension as the government disbands a squadron with a glorious record stretching back to World War One. Beg the Americans to do something, anything, to get your F35s in the air. Respect the enemy’s culture as they attack your cities and hold your head high while Starmer offers Britain’s surrender.”