What happens if you shot an AIM-54 in TWS, you lose track of the track but then you lock the target back again?

[secretcode]

I frequently tend to lose track of enemy contacts while on TWS Auto, so many times I have the cue to fire an AIM-54 and do so, but then I get the X on the display indicating that the radar lost track of the contact.

So I have a few questions on this situation:

1. What happens to the airborne AIM-54? Does it enter pitbull by itself? Right at the moment the radar lost the contact?

2. If I configure my radar (e.g Pulse/PD) to find the target can I lock it back and send that info to the AIM-54?

Testing a bit I just got that same situation. I was in TWS Auto, fired, lost track, changed back to Pulse, found the target, STT him and the missile found the target and hit. But I am not sure what happened there. Did the missile found the target by itself? Or was it me locking the contact back again?

 

I recorded what happened:

 

Edited January 6 by secretcode

[speed-of-heat]

AFAIK if you lose lock it goes pitbull... 

[The_Tau]

AIM54C will turn on its own radar if track is lost

AIM54A it will be trashed 99% of time. 

[QuiGon]

The AIM-54A needs to be commanded to go pitbul by the Tomcat radar. If the contact is lost before pitbull then this command won't get send to the missile and the missile is trashed.
The AIM-54C on the other hand goes pitbull on its own when the contact is lost.

[sLYFa]

The active command will get sent even if the track is lost and replaced by a memory track. As long as the missile stays roughly inside your radar cone, the missile will go active. It's chances to actually pick up the target will be rather slim though since the position predicted by the memory track and actual target position at pitbull will be likely different.

I did however score a few hits against player controlled aircraft with the Aim-54A even after track loss. But that is certainly an exception.

[9thHunt]

IIRC, it doesn't pitbull immediately, but it flies to the point where it would have pitbulled given the target's last known position and then goes pitbull.  it still loses the command link to the launcher aircraft as soon as it loses the lock though.

[sLYFa]

That's true for the C but for the A, you have to keep the missile in the radar cone since the active command has to come from the launching aircraft's radar and it will come at certain distance to the target track, no matter if it's an active or a memory track. If you turn away from the missile, the active command will never reach it and it won't go active, no matter where the target or memory track is.

[Kondor77]

As an aside, and currently kind of a DCS-ism if you lose track on a target before missile is commanded active and want to try to rescue the shot - STT the target (if you know the target has a jammer that will be activated in self protect mode). The missile A or C will turn to HoJ. But in another DCS-ism the target aircraft will get an RWR warning of an active shot out on them. The jammer would obviously need to remain on the entire time for the missile to guide.