Question about the RWR system...

[Lymark]

Say I'm in a close formation with a Huey, and an enemy SAM locked and launched at the Huey, will my RWR able to pick up both symbols? Or Will I have to be targeted in order to receive the threat?

 

Thanks!

[Jansgi]

Say I'm in a close formation with a Huey, and an enemy SAM locked and launched at the Huey, will my RWR able to pick up both symbols? Or Will I have to be targeted in order to receive the threat?

 

Thanks!

 

You will see the radar in your RWR when it is in searching mode. As soon as it starts locking or guiding a missile towards the Huey it should disappear from your RWR because it goes into tracking or guidance mode where it only focuses on the target. So yes, you have to be targeted to receive the lock or launch warning. If the radar is TWS capable and can guide missiles in this mode your RWR will pick it up as a search radar regardless who it is shooting. But in DCS SAMs don't use TWS so if you are picking up a search radar and it disappears for for no obvious reasons, you should be worried.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Jansgi

[Lymark]

You will see the radar in your RWR when it is in searching mode. As soon as it starts locking or guiding a missile towards the Huey it should disappear from your RWR because it goes into tracking or guidance mode where it only focuses on the target. So yes, you have to be targeted to receive the lock or launch warning. If the radar is TWS capable and can guide missiles in this mode your RWR will pick it up as a search radar regardless who it is shooting. But in DCS SAMs don't use TWS so if you are picking up a search radar and it disappears for for no obvious reasons, you should be worried.

 

Understood! Thanks for answering!:)

[Jansgi]

If you're in close formation you will absolutely pick up on the lock, you'll be well within the radar beam. However I dont think the game will trigger the launch warning for any aircraft other than the targeted one.

 

It won't because the radar focuses on the target aircraft only so the radar beam doesn't hit your RWR wideband antennas. You would have to be extremely close or between the target and the radar so that the beam hits your antennas.

[Deezle]

Unless they've recently fixed it, all aircraft within the radar of the enemy plane/SAM have been getting a lock tone.

[MAD-MM]

how accurate is currently the radar model in DCS? I assume is more trigger then real Radar simulation but think that's is not big game break.

The chopper how didn't immediately go in defensive to break the lock in the formation is next on the row....

[Lymark]

I'm kinda confused...The SAM locked and launched at the Huey, but you're still getting the tone?

 

Unless they've recently fixed it, all aircraft within the radar of the enemy plane/SAM have been getting a lock tone.

 

Oh well, I guess the lock tone ain't really reliable until I hear the launch tone then.

[Whisper]

I'm kinda confused...The SAM locked and launched at the Huey, but you're still getting the tone?

 

 

 

Oh well, I guess the lock tone ain't really reliable until I hear the launch tone then.

 

Well, when close enough of the Huey, he is apparently inside the cone of the locked beam of the SAM, even though the beam is locked on the Huey. It's a radar beam, not a coherent laser light :) It has an aperture angle (eng?), it's quite logical you can be within the beam even if not locked.

Though I've no clue if the actual values are realistic.

I'm actually baffled the sim behaves like that, tbh.

[Jansgi]

beam width in track mode will still be large enough to encompass multiple aircraft in a close formation.

 

Here's some science for you: the laser spot width for a laser designator at 12km is about 4 feet/1.2 meters. A radar is nowhere near that narrow. Suppose in search mode a radar has a beam width of 120 meters. Now in single target track that radar goes to a 3 degree half-width (always talked about in terms of half-width for dishes - half width being from the center of the wave guide out). You can do the trig for whatever range you like after that.

 

Does that make sense to everyone now? A radar in track mode is not a laser beam. it's a flashlight with a narrower beam an a faster pulse, and it's probably freq-hopping, too (which for a decetcor doesn't really matter but for a jammer it does).

 

Sounds about right, I underestimated the width a bit in my earlier statement. Tho I bet the radar beam width varies with different radars. And of course the distance has to be taken into account.