F-15C radar range

[MasterZelgadis]

Hi, I tried the F-15C a bit yesterday, and noticed, that I have some issues with finding Air targets. I set up a simple scenario, my F-15 + wingman vs. 2 SU-27 about 200 miles away, on a head on course.

 

Now I kept scanning for the targets, but they didn't appear on my radar. Radar was in RWS mode and set to 160 range, with the elevation from 0 to 35 (I set the SUs to 25000 ft MSL). First thing happened was the 2 SU radars appearing on my RWR. Short time after that my wingman reported, that he has found the two SUs. and much later they appeared on my radar.

 

Why did they appear so late on my radar? I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think at the moment, I found them, they were already shooting at me..

 

edit: tried it after that with a Yak, it also appeared on my radar at about 80 - 90 nm

[golfsierra2]

Moin Master,

 

what was your altitude? Depending on the curvature of the earth and your own altitude, the aspect differs a lot. If you fligh low and scan 0 - 35, while your targets ar far, far away and flying high, they probably will be outside your search pattern.

[RIPTIDE]

Hi, I tried the F-15C a bit yesterday, and noticed, that I have some issues with finding Air targets. I set up a simple scenario, my F-15 + wingman vs. 2 SU-27 about 200 miles away, on a head on course.

 

Now I kept scanning for the targets, but they didn't appear on my radar. Radar was in RWS mode and set to 160 range, with the elevation from 0 to 35 (I set the SUs to 25000 ft MSL). First thing happened was the 2 SU radars appearing on my RWR. Short time after that my wingman reported, that he has found the two SUs. and much later they appeared on my radar.

 

Why did they appear so late on my radar? I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think at the moment, I found them, they were already shooting at me..

 

edit: tried it after that with a Yak, it also appeared on my radar at about 80 - 90 nm

Because the F-15C like all radars have an effective range, depending on the target type. Fighter sized targets will appear between ~35-45nm depending on prf used. Larger aircraft will appear further off.

 

Setting to 160 merely sets the display to 160nm... not the actual range of the radar. Hope this helps. Also if you had ECM pods on the Su-27 these would display jamming.

[RIPTIDE]

Depending on the curvature of the earth

I don't think curvature of the earth is modelled for any purpose in this Sim.

[Exorcet]

RIPTIDE is correct. You won't see a fighter at 160 nm ever. Radar works on range squared equation. Both the RWR and Radar detect radar signals, but the RWR is passive and can detect outbound signals. The radar is active and needs to use inbound (or return) signals, which means these have traveled twice as far and are weaker.

 

RWR will almost always outrange radar.

 

Another thing to consider is PRF. Default is interleaved. There is also High and Med. High is for long range incoming targets. Mid for close range with low or negative closure rates.

[GGTharos]

The range at which you will detect a target depends on target RCS (for the same radar). To double the detectable range of an object, you need 16 times the RCS. So if you think of a fighter as having an RCS of 5, and being detectable at 60nm, an aircraft with RCS 80 would be detectable at 120nm.

(Similarly, if you want to halve detection range, you need 1/16th the RCS ... if you think about F-22 RCS, it's detectable range is 1/8th to 1/10th that of a conventional fighter, with its RCS being about 1/16^3! )

 

Most fighters you'll pick up at 60nm co-altitude (IMHO should be a little further out, but we won't get into that - certainly not over 100nm for now, anyway :) ), and look-down you will see them at shorter range (40-50nm).

 

If their tail is turned to you, you'll get them at even shorter range than that.

 

 

Hi, I tried the F-15C a bit yesterday, and noticed, that I have some issues with finding Air targets. I set up a simple scenario, my F-15 + wingman vs. 2 SU-27 about 200 miles away, on a head on course.

 

Now I kept scanning for the targets, but they didn't appear on my radar. Radar was in RWS mode and set to 160 range, with the elevation from 0 to 35 (I set the SUs to 25000 ft MSL). First thing happened was the 2 SU radars appearing on my RWR. Short time after that my wingman reported, that he has found the two SUs. and much later they appeared on my radar.

 

Why did they appear so late on my radar? I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think at the moment, I found them, they were already shooting at me..

 

edit: tried it after that with a Yak, it also appeared on my radar at about 80 - 90 nm

Edited August 14, 2013 by GGTharos

[golfsierra2]

I don't think curvature of the earth is modelled for any purpose in this Sim.

 

But why can I see sunrise and sunset ?? :doh:

 

Never mind, I got it ...

[RIPTIDE]

But why can I see sunrise and sunset ?? :doh:

For the same reason as when we had thought the earth was flat. :D

Never mind, I got it ...

:thumbup:

[Night]

For the same reason as when we had thought the earth was flat. :D

 

:thumbup:

 

As a registered member of the Flat Earth a Society, I find this comment highly offensive. We have known, from time in memorial, that the earth is actually flat.

 

:lol:

[MasterZelgadis]

Effective range, okay, but that doesn't explain why my wingman, flying the same aircraft and radar, can engage a target, that doesn't even appear on my radar. On my radar it appeared like 15 seconds later

[GGTharos]

Because he is an AI. They cheat. :)