Excessive radar detection range on AI aircraft?

[Night Owl]

I often get painted by the radars of Mig29, Su27, Su33, or Su34 AI aircraft that are more than 200 nm away. I am no expert on the capabilities of aircraft radar, however, this range seems totaly excessive, considering that even the long-range interceptor F-14 with it's massive radar can only detect fighter-sized aircraft at 100-120 nm.

 

It would be nice to have this fixed to more realistic ranges, since it kind of destroys the immersion in single-player missions if you already know where the enemy aircraft are long before they get detected by an AWACS.

[Jetguy06]

That's generally how radar works. Think about shining a flashlight at a treeline a mile away at night. The photons will make it there, but they will be too scattered for you to see anything in the treeline. It's the same thing with radar. The radar waves can make it that far out and hit your aircraft, but it's highly unlikely you'll be detected at that range, unless it's an AWACS painting you.

[TLTeo]

The AI becomes aware of your presence as well. I've had wingmen in the Mig-19 report detections of targets at tens of miles, which is way more than the radar display can even show. Different modules handle this differently too - for example the Farmer and Viggen are a mess, but the Fishbed seems more or less sensible in my experience. Beyond how radar actually works, it's one more piece of the crappy AI DCS has to deal with.

Edited October 4, 2021 by TLTeo

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

There's also the issue of getting a lock warning if the AI locks up something else in-between their location and yours. Often this is indeed from hundreds of miles away...

And yes, I regularly have wingmen calling out airborne bogies 260 nm away, and even calling out tanks at ridiculous distances. 

[Nealius]

There is, however, a known issue with the AI radar overperforming:

 

 

[Frederf]

AI RWR will see much farther than their radars. MiG-21bis will see a radar emission at 300nm with SPO-10 but will only detect a non-emitting target with their own radar at a much shorter range.