ALR-46 RWR - Why unable to detect launches from SA-5, SA-11, MiG-23, etc?

[Istari6]

Having learned to fly the F-4, I'm now moving into learning the weapons and defensive systems before diving into Reflected's "MiG Killers" campaign.  Just diving into the ALR-46 and how it operates, and was surprised to see the wide array of threats where the ALR-46 cannot detect a launch.

In particular, I was struck at the tables in the Heatblur manual that listed the following threats as providing no warning on launch:

* SA-5

* SA-11

* MiG-23

* F-4

Wouldn't all these systems work by SARH?  Why wouldn't a mid-1970s RWR be able to detect the CW signal of weapon guidance and alert the pilot?  It seems like fighting the MiG-23 in particular will be more challenging without knowing we've had an Apex launched at us.  

(BTW - I know that there's no warning for IR-guided systems like SA-13, that's understandable)

Edited 13 hours ago by Istari6

[d0ppler]

At least for the MiG-23 (and MiG-21), their radar frequency is outside the bands of the RWR. Even the Viper won't see them on it's RWR. In fact I don't think any plane (in DCS) will detect them on their RWR.

[Istari6]

That's very strange.  On the inability to detect the MiG-23s CW signal, I'm 95% sure I've heard MiG-23 launch alerts when I was flying the Tomcat.  But it also seems strange that the USAF fitted RWR antennas that weren't tuned to cover the threat band of the F-4s greatest air-to-air threat in the 1970s.  I trust Heatblur has done the research and this is how the real F-4E-45MC worked.  Just trying to understand why the USAF would possibly implement such a system?