"Predicted" target distance??

[LordOrion]

1 hour ago, Pavlin_33 said:

I've been thinking about this topic for a while, I fly mostly red planes, and came to the conclusion: doesn't the West radar do exactly the same? Isn't moving the TDC (not 100% sure if that's how the target designator is called) up 'n' down the same as adjusting the Flanker's expected target distance?
If am not badly mistaken, NATO and Soviet radars are controlled the same way, it's just that the Soviet ones care about the search "center" and the NATO ones care about search area limits.

For someone who flies blue fighters rarely, I find the radar misleading, 'cause if I set the radar at 80nm and scanning from 0 to 60K ft it seems that I will pick up targets that inside these parameters and this is really not true - learned that the hard way. What this setting does instead is basically telling the radar: "Hey, search [for a target] from 0 to 60K ft AT 80nm". If a target is at 40nm, this does not guarantee it will be picked up if it's height is above or below. But I set it to cover 0 to 60K, how come?
Soviet-styled radar is more like: point and shoot.

Also, the expected target distance will automatically position the radar's elevation to the correct angle. Antenna's tilt will not be the same for a target that is 3km below you at 10km distance and 3km below you at 80km.
 

 

Well, I think Red air radar behavior is designed accordingly to the GCI doctine used by red air: the duty of find targets is left to ground EW radars and/or AWACS, which then directs fighters to the correct intercept course.  Pilots in this case already know the existence of the target, its distance and relative altitude so they can keep the radar off till inside the weapon emploiment range and then turn it on and quickly point  the cone over the target using the information provided by the GCI. In these conditions, the necessity to manually input the relative altitude perfectly make sense.

Although Blue air uses AWACS and EW information, (shared through Datalink) to provide a better SA to fighters, Blue radars are designed to being able to be the main source of target identification to not left the fighters "blind" (or "eye-impaired") in case AWACS/EW and/datalink is not available. Usually they can be oriented as a sort of spotlight so that the pilot can look for targets where he knows they can be (or supposed to be). 

A correct pointing of the scan cone over the target might be slower in some cases, but IMHO this system is much more flexible.

Edited February 23, 2023 by LordOrion

[Ironhand]

29 minutes ago, LordOrion said:

…A correct pointing of the scan cone over the target might be slower in some cases, but IMHO this system is much more flexible.

It’s no different than the RedFor radars. A general search is a general search. The only time you would set the estimated target range to anything other than the default would be under direction of the controller. Otherwise you scan with “0” altitude difference for longer range BVR targets and + or - “1” for closer BVR targets. If you are using an altitude differential of 2km or greater, you are already WVR in most cases unless you are flying extremely low or extremely high.

Beyond that, in the Su-27, especially, your SA is as good as the F-15’s because of the HDD. You know which bogies are higher or lower and roughly how much. You know which are faster or slower and roughly how much. And you also know where their noses are pointing. The MiG-29 cockpit, unfortunately, is less helpful in the SA department.

[draconus]

13 hours ago, Pavlin_33 said:

Isn't moving the TDC (not 100% sure if that's how the target designator is called) up 'n' down the same as adjusting the Flanker's expected target distance?

Yep, I already said that before:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/216596-quotpredictedquot-target-distance/?do=findComment&comment=4051350

[Pavlin_33]

14 minutes ago, draconus said:

Yep, I already said that before:

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/216596-quotpredictedquot-target-distance/?do=findComment&comment=4051350