The science behind missile beaming

[Shein]

Ok so i know what missile beaming is and how to do it, but im more interested in the science behind it. why is a radar unable to see you at beam position? i know its because there is no relative movement between you and the ground clutter to the radar, but shouldnt the altitude difference between you and the ground be enough for the radar to go on? a google search yielded nothing. Anybody know how it works more in depth?

[Eihort]

It actually really is just that simple. There's a lot of things out there that don't move all that much that you don't want to be looking at. Chaff namely, after it's had time to disperse. Certain bands are also sensitive to water vapor (clouds). Additionally, there's things like multipath and ambiguous returns that even objects "at altitude" don't get rid of.

 

There's also the radar type. Most air intercept radars are pulse-doppler, and a zero doppler shift has to be thrown out by necessity or you get a bunch of unintelligible garbage. The plus side is you get things for TWS modes. In a missle, it's helpful to make sure you don't see this massive loud return otherwise known as "the ground" and home in on that instead. When you really get into the voodoo science of RF, it's actually really simple to make a small object look far bigger than it really is, and some of that geometry is not all that rare on man-made structures like buildings, and even smaller objects. A mylar baloon from the store is a good example.

[Shein]

thats exactly what i was looking for. thanks!