the Radar: PESA or AESA?

[Beamscanner]

On 4/1/2023 at 6:24 PM, F-2 said:

Apparently scan speed is comparable to a PESA, 10 degrees in 30 milliseconds according to this old AWST. The radar also has interleaving in some capacity.

FYI, most mechanical radars can scan faster than they do during normal operation. However, scanning faster lowers your detection range by reducing your time on target (less pulses get integrated).

 

I highly doubt the Captor-M actually scans at 333 degrees per second during RWS / TWS. Doing so would cut its detection range nearly in half. 

 

The benefit of this high scan rate capability (and AESAs) is 

1. Less time lost in changing elevation bars and resetting of the raster scan

2. less time rotating the antenna face when in STT and during an aircraft roll

3. Track file revisits (main benefit of PESA and AESA). Which probably doesn't exist in the Captor-M in any mode except DTT. And this would only be during the motion between the targets. While on the targets (if performing a mini-raster) it would slow down again. 

Edited April 9, 2023 by Beamscanner

[Blaze1]

On 4/9/2023 at 8:22 AM, Beamscanner said:

FYI, most mechanical radars can scan faster than they do during normal operation. However, scanning faster lowers your detection range by reducing your time on target (less pulses get integrated).

 

I highly doubt the Captor-M actually scans at 333 degrees per second during RWS / TWS. Doing so would cut its detection range nearly in half. 

 

The benefit of this high scan rate capability (and AESAs) is 

1. Less time lost in changing elevation bars and resetting of the raster scan

2. less time rotating the antenna face when in STT and during an aircraft roll

3. Track file revisits (main benefit of PESA and AESA). Which probably doesn't exist in the Captor-M in any mode except DTT. And this would only be during the motion between the targets. While on the targets (if performing a mini-raster) it would slow down again. 

 

Beamscanner, the high drive rate also allows for updating of multiple priority target tracks while in TWS and that includes out of volume target tracks.  The articles listed state that the antenna is electronically rotated.

[Temetre]

Am 9.4.2023 um 09:22 schrieb Beamscanner:

I highly doubt the Captor-M actually scans at 333 degrees per second during RWS / TWS. Doing so would cut its detection range nearly in half.

Im not an expert here, but would it allow you to scan a huge area at the reduced range?

After all even the F-14s and F-15s radar got huge ranges, 100 miles against hot fighters, and thats 80s radar. EF radar is a bit smaller, but much more modern. If you can get, idk, 75km range but scan a large area, that might be a useful mode.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Temetre

[MRTX]

Am 9.4.2023 um 09:22 schrieb Beamscanner:

3. Track file revisits (main benefit of PESA and AESA). Which probably doesn't exist in the Captor-M in any mode except DTT. And this would only be during the motion between the targets. While on the targets (if performing a mini-raster) it would slow down again. 

 

The Eurofighter was designed to be an air superiority fighter with its radar built in mind, so isn't the whole point of having the ability of such a high scanrate to enable dynamic dwell times on TWS targets by revisiting tracks, allowing for high target update rates at the maximum radar search volume. 

For example the radar would initially perform normal bar sweeps to scan the airspace in a rather classic fashion at its maximum search volume. After detecting a single or multiple targets and creating TWS track files, the radar is still able to perform normal bar sweeps at the maximum search volume in order not to compromise the detection of new targets. Between every other bar sweep the radar would then quickly revisit all existing radar tracks ensuring a high track rate no matter the radar search volume. On top of that this also allows the radar to prioritize TWS tracks by their RCS or the necessity of higher update rates for a missile track. 

This overall allows for extremely stable TWS tracks at full radar search volume (which currently no fighter in DCS features) at unpresidented ranges. The only real factor influencing TWS performance would be the number of simultaneous tracks. 

[Spectre11]

You still remain constraint by the mechanical gimbal compared to ESA. For best performance you still need to trade scan volume, but you at least have the choice and that's not true for any other MSA I'm aware of.