Saturation attack Saturation attack is a military tactic in which the attacking side hopes to gain an advantage by overwhelming the defending side ' s technological , physical and mental ability to respond effectively . During the Cold War and after the conventional " saturation missile attack " against naval and land targets was and is a much feared eventuality . Theoretical calculations . Taking the design of an anti - ship missile as a theoretical example , one can begin with the goal of creating a missile which will get through and destroy its target 100 % of the time . However as a designer one knows that with time an opponent will develop counter measures that means that your missile will at some later date not be 100 % effective . So given that a missile will only ever be less than perfect why not design a missile that will get through to the target say only 70 % or even only 50 % of time , with a cost saving benefit on each missile produced . Launched singly a missile with a 50 % chance of getting through to its target will only get to its target 50 % of the time , but with a salvo two such missiles the chance of at least one missile getting through is 75 % , with three missiles 87 . 5 % etc . , with the probability that at least one missile will get through to its target becoming closer to certainty with each missile fired . If each missile has a warhead capable of destroying the target , then no individual missile can be ignored by the target warship and counter - measures . Thus , SAMs and CIW resources will have to be expended to defend the target . To further overload a target ' s ability to defend itself , an attacker can attempt to launch multiple missiles from multiple directions using different guidance options . The main subscribers to the concept of the saturation missile attack were the Soviet Union and its client states . The Komar class missile boat for example being designed and operated around the calculations that it would take 12 P - 15 Termit missiles to destroy a single NATO destroyer . At a time when British destroyers were equipped with just four anti - ship missiles , Soviet ships were going to sea with anything up to 20 anti - ship missiles , with even destroyers fielding 8 large missiles . With the NATO allies having followed the route of individually smaller and lighter missiles , NATO warships had the appearance of being underarmed when compared to Soviet ships with their multiple missiles in large container / launch tube housings . Bomber stream . The bomber stream was a tactic pioneered by the RAF to overwhelm German air defences during the Second World War . The tactic relied on routing a greater number of bombers through a defensive sector then the Germans could generate interception sorties . Although it was a certainty that bombers would be lost , it was impossible for the defending fighters to destroy every bomber and stop the bombers gaining their objective . During the Cold War British and American air defences revolved around plans to stop massed Soviet bomber streams , leading to the US fielding nuclear tipped Nike missiles , and at a later date the British equipping trainers as interceptors in order to have enough fighters .