Intercepting fighters in peace-time(ish)

[Emu]

Is it common for radar lock to be applied on approach?

[SDsc0rch]

it depends - mostly.. "yes" --- locking in and of itself is not an overtly hostile act

 

but putting your nose on a contact is considered aggressive ---- if the locked aircraft then turns away in response to an interceptor going nose on, and the intercepting a/c then turns and follows, the heat is def increasing

 

unrelated but not un-related.. activating ECM/EW is usually considered a hostile act

[EtherealN]

Actually, the "depends" and "mostly" are, I feel, a bit misleading here. Because we need to define "radar lock".

 

STT? Eff no. Well, unless your aircraft are such that that (or similarly signatured) locks are your only method of tracking a given target. Basically, it's threatening. You want to avoid that if necessary, since theopposing side might misunderstand. (I have a mate at my flying club, closing on his 100's, that fired on german fighters in WW2 because he had no radio contact with home, the fighter did "interesting" things, and he didn't know if war had broken out between sweden and germany...) Fortunately, most aircraft of some "modern" description have modes similar to what in FC-speak would be "TWS" - track-while-scan - that is not identifiable. In that mode, yes, you would probably "lock" the target, but he wouldn't have a clue that this has happened. (Well, maybe he will, he might have some fancy systems onboard to analyse signals we humans don't know about.)

 

In the STT sense, when Swedish JA-37's intercepted, and gained a (momentary) valid weapons solution on american blackbird jets violating swedish airspace, they would enter STT and give a clear "lock" signal onboar the blackbird's RWR systems. However, they would not have their radar in "war mode", meaning that whatever signals intelligence the blackbird might get from analysing said radar signals would NOT be what the "intercepting" (kinda funny to use that word with a JA-37 "intercepting" a blackbird, but you know what I mean) aircraft would use in actual war. (Different modes were reserved for actual war, and activation of it was very heavily restricted specifically to limit what foreign powers could do to prepare through SIGINT.)

[Emu]

it depends - mostly.. "yes" --- locking in and of itself is not an overtly hostile act

 

but putting your nose on a contact is considered aggressive ---- if the locked aircraft then turns away in response to an interceptor going nose on, and the intercepting a/c then turns and follows, the heat is def increasing

 

unrelated but not un-related.. activating ECM/EW is usually considered a hostile act

"Nose on a contact"???

[159th_Viper]

"Nose on a contact"???

 

Pointy end towards target.

[Emu]

Okay, so locking them is okay, unless you point the nose at them? Wow. Strange rules up there.:D

[rrohde]

Wasn't that a thing in Falcon (3, I believe) to lock-on the bogies until the "bugged out"? That was achieved without firing a single shot...

[Bimbac]

In peace time, locking up the target in STT is considered a hostile act.

[RagnarDa]

I'd like to know this aswell. Any sources would be appreciated.

[EtherealN]

Wasn't that a thing in Falcon (3, I believe) to lock-on the bogies until the "bugged out"? That was achieved without firing a single shot...

 

Might be useful to double-check that everyone is talking about the same kind of intercept though: what happens if a foreign military aircraft is inside your airspace might well be different to what might happen if you're just heading out there to keep a really close eye on him. (Like all those famous shots of western aircraft flying on the wing of a russian bomber etc.)

 

Things are a bit different when you want to tell someone to "GTFO NOW" and when you're intercepting them just to keep an eye on them. (The described incident with the Blackbird was, for example, a case of violated airspace, but not all intercepts are like that; indeed I'd suspect they are fairly rare since you would normally head out there prior to the bogey entering your airspace. And it is, of course, a bit shady to threaten someone with a shootdown for flying in international airspace. :P )