primus_TR Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago 13 hours ago, Zabuzard said: or tracking another player instead. So, the targeted radar must be tracking specifically the platform who launched the Shrike, for the Shrike to be able to continue tracking the radar?
Zabuzard Posted 7 hours ago Posted 7 hours ago (edited) 1 hour ago, primus_TR said: So, the targeted radar must be tracking specifically the platform who launched the Shrike, for the Shrike to be able to continue tracking the radar? Not necessarily. You have to visuallize the radar beam going out of the SAM station pointing at for example your aircraft. The Shrike needs to ride that beam down, more or less. If you fly elsewhere, the SAM will keep the radar beam on you and your shrike will stop being able to "ride it down" as it now does not sit on the line between you and the SAM anymore. Same happens when the SAM decides to do business with another aircraft that isnt right next to you. Or when it decides to switch to optical tracking, turning off its radar. Or when it sees the shrike and rather turns off their radar last minute to stay alive. There are many cases that result in your missile hitting the dirt. Edited 7 hours ago by Zabuzard 1 2
primus_TR Posted 5 hours ago Posted 5 hours ago I wasn't aware that shrike was a beam rider. Looks like this connects with the side lobe discussion above. Thank you. 1
Ivandrov Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago (edited) 1 hour ago, primus_TR said: I wasn't aware that shrike was a beam rider. Looks like this connects with the side lobe discussion above. Thank you. Not technically a beam rider. It just tracks an emitting radar by its main lobe only. The radar has to illuminate the Shrike's seeker with the Main Lobe for the Shrike to track. This means that my attack profile usually involves a split-s. Remain in line with the axis you fired on. Edited 4 hours ago by Ivandrov 2
Zabuzard Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago Yeah. The main takeaway is that the radar needs to point at the Shrike. Which the SAM has no interest in, it follows you or other aircraft. So that is something you have to keep in mind regarding positioning and similar. 1 1
primus_TR Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago It is strange than how the shrike has zero difficulty hitting a rotating search radar; if it is indeed following the beam, it should be swayed by the rotating beam. That is not the case right now. I can hit a p19 without fail every time, but not the tracking radar. 46 minutes ago, Ivandrov said: This means that my attack profile usually involves a split-s. Remain in line with the axis you fired on. Based on what is described above, a split S would push the tracking beam down, and a lofted shrike, which would be way above the beam, would have zero chance acquiring.
Ivandrov Posted 3 hours ago Posted 3 hours ago (edited) 46 minutes ago, primus_TR said: It is strange than how the shrike has zero difficulty hitting a rotating search radar; if it is indeed following the beam, it should be swayed by the rotating beam. That is not the case right now. I can hit a p19 without fail every time, but not the tracking radar. Based on what is described above, a split S would push the tracking beam down, and a lofted shrike, which would be way above the beam, would have zero chance acquiring. It does not track the beam itself, it tracks the source. The main lobe is the area that the primary radar signal travels through and the shrike will track the emitting source based on look angle. It will cross into the main lobe eventually. The loft takes it higher than the beam usually anyway. Edited 3 hours ago by Ivandrov
primus_TR Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago 11 minutes ago, Ivandrov said: It does not track the beam itself, it tracks the source. That's what I thought also. In that case, it should not matter for Shrike where the tracking radar is directed at: me or some other target.
Ivandrov Posted 2 hours ago Posted 2 hours ago (edited) 16 minutes ago, primus_TR said: That's what I thought also. In that case, it should not matter for Shrike where the tracking radar is directed at: me or some other target. It does matter because you won't be able to see the radar signal and it's source if you aren't in the lobe and being painted by it. A bit like how your RWR requires that the radar paint you before it knows that it is there and what direction the signal is coming from. Edited 2 hours ago by Ivandrov
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