Passive tracking

[Longiron]

I feel the TCS is underutilized currently.

Its ability to hold a lock on what appears to be a mosquito is amazing.

I won't even get into the tactical advantage of not emitting signals to the target.

Long story short we really need some functionality with Jester to capitalize on this system, like launching an aim7 and telling Jester to go Rudolph ( slave radar flood mode ) like 4 seconds before impact.

 

Almost like a poor man's fox3 when I think about it.

[QuiGon]

Flying almost exclusively as a RIO I have to agree, that the TCS is a powerful tool indeed, but it's not as easy as you say. Some things to consider:

 

- First of all you need to obtain a lock, which is pretty difficult without using the radar, as the TCS has a rather narrow FOV and is pretty finecky to slew around, so you need to get the enemy pretty much on your nose first, which means you need to know where he is beforehand. Once you have a lock the TCS does keep track very well indeed, so it's good for tracking, but not for searching.

 

- AFAIK the RIO has no way to manually command flood mode.

 

- I'm not sure if it is possible to silently launch Sparrows.

[BonerCat]

Sparrows launched with the ACM cover up should go to flood mode if there is no STT lock, and you could (probably) launch them with the WCS switch in standby, but i m not sure if they will lock on after launch

[QuiGon]

Sparrows launched with the ACM cover up should go to flood mode if there is no STT lock, and you could (probably) launch them with the WCS switch in standby, but i m not sure if they will lock on after launch

I think the pilot can also manually command flood mode for Sparrow launches with the Boresight switch on his ACM panel (I'm not very familiar with the front cockpit and its functions). The question is though if that works after launch, especially when the radar was in standby during launch.

 

Btw, me and my pilot have achieved a couple of stealth kills in multiplayer, utilising the TCS, but we always used Sidewinders for that. It's a great tactic when in pursuit of a fleeing bandit, to go radar silent and track the fleeing bandit with the TCS. More often than not they then feel safe, as the 14 disappeared from their RWR, and turn hot again, which is the moment when they will get a Sidewinder to their face :)

Edited December 6, 2019 by QuiGon

[Longiron]

Btw, me and my pilot have achieved a couple of stealth kills in multiplayer, utilising the TCS, but we always used Sidewinders for that. It's a great tactic when in pursuit of a fleeing bandit, to go radar silent and track the fleeing bandit with the TCS. More often than not they then feel safe, as the 14 disappeared from their RWR, and turn hot again, which is the moment when they will get a Sidewinder to their face :)

 

that is exactly my thoughts, nice to hear someone has implemented this.

Definitely need to test the Aim7 cold shots myself, seems like it should work in theory.

 

As for TCS searching, with some good AWACS DL it shouldnt be too difficult to find a bird, even more so if he's silhouette against the sky. I'll need to try out the different lock modes for TCS and experiment.

 

Just had me thinking, such an old Jet (F14) had an IRST then a TCS passive track system. Then I hear the F35 has an IRST passive track system and I had to think they wouldn't have kept it if it wasn't effective. Wonders why the hornet doesnt have a passive track, or is the HMCS and some eagle eyes the only tracking system needed.

[lunaticfringe]

Sparrow cannot be fired and attain a target without a valid lock given the pre-lauch guidance and English flight bias instructions required to tell it where to look and what Doppler to listen for.

 

Even ACM boresight shots get a simulated Doppler injection and a look angle a second before it comes off the rail.

 

Just doesn't work.

[QuiGon]

Just had me thinking, such an old Jet (F14) had an IRST then a TCS passive track system. Then I hear the F35 has an IRST passive track system and I had to think they wouldn't have kept it if it wasn't effective. Wonders why the hornet doesnt have a passive track, or is the HMCS and some eagle eyes the only tracking system needed.

IRSTs are much more used than many think, especially outside of the US. In the early days aircraft like F-101, F-102 and F-106 in the US or the swedish J-35 were equipped with IRST. Even the F-4 Phantom had an IRST at the beginning. While the US stepped away from using IRST, the russians made heavy use of IRST, equipping their MiG-29 and Su-27 series with it. In Euopre it is used nowadays on the Eurofighter Typhoon, Dassault Rafale and JAS-39 Gripen and it seems its now making its comeback in the US as well.

[DD_Fenrir]

An IRST from the 70's is a completely different animal then a modern IRST; 45 years of development kinda has that effect....