The primary engineering that a military aircraft uses to lock and tag an enemy aircraft is its onboard radiolocation . Aircraft radar typically have two modal value : search and rails . In search fashion , the microwave radar sweeps a radio beam across the sky in a zigzag - zag practice . When the radiocommunication beam is reflected by a butt aircraft , an denotation is shown on the radio detection and ranging video display . In lookup style , no single aircraft is being trail , but the pilot can normally tell generally what a particular radio detection and ranging return is doing because with each consecutive sweep , the radiolocation return move somewhat .
This is an example of the fire restraint radar display for an F-16 Fighting Falcon when the radiolocation is in a hunting style :
Each ashen brick is a radar rejoinder . Because the radiolocation is only scanning , not trail , no other information is available about the radar objective . ( There is one exception : The Doppler fault of the radar proceeds can be appraise , to estimate how tight the aircraft traveling towards or away from you , much like the slant of an oncoming geartrain ’s whistle can tell you how fast it ’s come at you . This is displayed as the modest white course bank line originate from each brick . )
mark that the pointer are over the bottom - most brick ( closest to our aircraft ) . The pilot is ready to lock up this target . This will put the radar into a course mode . In track way , the radiolocation focuses its energy on a finicky target . Because the radio detection and ranging is in reality tracking a target , and not just display brick when it set out a reflection back , it can tell the pilot a lot more about the target . This is what the F-16 ’s flak restraint radar display looks like when a target is locked :
Along the top we have a lot of information about what our radar target is doing :
Its aspect slant ( angle between its nozzle position and our nose place ) is 160 ° to the left field ,
its heading is 190 ° ,
its airspeed is 450 knots ,
and our stoppage rate is 828 nautical mile .
With this information , the pilot burner receive a much better idea of what the aircraft is doing , but at the disbursement of information about other aircraft in the area .
Note that in the above movie , the bottom - most ( closest ) fair game is locked ( circle around it ) , the two targets further off are tracked ( yellow squares ) , and there are two radar return even further out ( white brick ) . This is demonstrating an modern feature of speech of mod radars , situational awareness mode . A microwave radar in SAM combines both trailing and scan to allow a pilot to cover one or a small routine of “ interesting ” target while not losing the big picture of what other targets are doing . In this mood , the radar shaft sweeps the sky , while briefly and on a regular basis pausing its scan to check up on a locked aim .
Note that all of this come in with tradeoff . In the remainder , a radio detection and ranging is only as herculean as it is , and you may put a lot of radar vitality on one target , or spread it out weakly throughout the sky , or some via media in between . In the above pic you may see two vertical bar spanning the stature of the display — these are the azimuth scan boundary . It ’s the aircraft ’s style of tell you , “ OK , I can both track this fair game , and scan for other targets , but in regaining , I ’m only going to skim a 40 ° wide cone in front of the aircraft , instead of the common 60 ° . Radar , like life , is full of trade-off .
An important affair to note is that a microwave radar lock is not always required to set in motion artillery at a aim . For guns kills , if the aircraft has a microwave radar lock on a objective , it can accurately guess range to the objective , and provide the original with the appropriate corrections for lead and sombreness free fall , to get an precise guns pop . Without the radar , the pilot simply has to rely on his or her own judgement .
As an example of that , let ’s take a look at the F-16 ’s HUD ( heads - up presentation ) when in the process of hire gun at a microwave radar - mesh fair game :
It becomes fabulously simple ; that modest circle labeled “ heater at butt reach ” is called the “ demise dot ” by F-16 pilot film . essentially , it constitute where the cannon snipe would land if you fired right now , and the rounds traveled the distance between you and the locked target area . In other actor’s line , if you want a satisfying guns stamp out , just fly the death dot onto the airplane . Super simple .
But what if there ’s no radar lock ? Well now the HUD look like this :
No demise dose — but you still have the funnel . The funnel represent the course the cannon beat would travel out in front of you if you fired right now . The width of the funnel is equal to the apparent width of a predetermine wingspread at that particular range . So , if you did n’t have a lock on your target , but you knew it had a wingspread of 35 feet , you could dial in 35 feet , then fly the funnel shape until the breadth precisely lined up with the width of the foeman aircraft ’s wing , then squeeze the initiation .
And what about missiles ? Again , a microwave radar whorl is not required . For heat - seek missiles , a radar lock is only used to prepare the seeker channelize onto the target . Without a radar lock , the quester promontory scans the sky looking for “ burnished ” ( hot ) object , and when it finds one , it plays a typical whining note to the pilot . The buffer does not need radar in this case , he just needs to channelize his aircraft until he has “ skilful tone , ” and then fire the projectile . The radar only gain this operation faster .
Now , radiolocation - guide on missiles amount in two varieties : passive and active . Passive radar missile do require a radio detection and ranging lock chamber , because these missiles use the aircraft ’s reflected radar energy to track the butt .
participating radar missiles however have their own onboard microwave radar , which lock and tracks a target . But this radar is on a one - fashion trip , so it ’s substantially less expensive ( and less powerful ) than the aircraft ’s radiolocation . So , these missile normally get some guidance help from the launch aircraft until they vanish close enough to the prey where they can turn on their own radar and “ go active . ” ( This tolerate the launch aircraft to turn away and defend itself . ) It is potential to fire an dynamic radio detection and ranging missile with no microwave radar lock chamber ( so - call “ maddog ” ) ; in this case , the projectile will fly until it ’s about out of fuel , and then it will turn on its microwave radar and pursue the first prey it picture . This is not a recommended strategy if there are well-disposed aircraft in close proximity to the enemy .
As to the last part of your motion — yes , an aircraft can tell if a radar is painting it or locked onto it . Radar is just radiocommunication wave , and just as your FM radiocommunication convert wireless waves into sound , so can an aircraft analyze incoming radio receiver signals to figure out who ’s doing what . This is called an RWR , or radiolocation word of advice receiver , and has both a video and audio component . This is a typical RWR display :
Although an aircraft ’s radio detection and ranging can only read out in front of the aircraft , an aircraftcan listen for incoming radar signal in any direction , so the range is 360 ° . A digital signal processor looks for recognizable radio “ chirps ” that fit to know radar , and exhibit their AZ on the range . A chirp is a classifiable wave form that a radio use . See , if two radios use the same wave form at the same time , they ’ll confuse each other , because each radio wo n’t know which radar returns are from its own sender . To prevent this , unlike radios be given to use distinct waveforms . This can also be used by the target aircraft to identify the type of radar being used , and therefore possibly , the character of aircraft .
In this display , the RWR has observe an F-15 ( 15 with a hat on it indicating aircraft ) at the 7 - o’clock position . The strength of the radar is plot as distance from the essence — the airless to the center , the stronger the detected radiolocation signal , and therefore perhaps the closer the channelise aircraft .
Detected at the 12- to 1 - o’clock location are two Earth’s surface - to - air projectile ( SAM ) sites , an SA-5 “ Gammon ” and an SA-6 “ Gainful ” . These are Russian SAM launch radars and interpret a serious scourge . The RWR computer has specify the SA-6 to be the highest precedence threat in the orbit , and thus has enclosed it with a diamond .
RWR also has an audio component . Each time a raw radar signal is find , it is convert into an audio undulation and played for the pilot . Because different microwave radar “ sound ” different , pilots learn to recognize different airborne or control surface menace by their distinctive feel . The sound is also an important pool stick to tell the pilot what the radar is doing : If the sound plays once , or intermittently , it means the radar is only painting our aircraft ( in hunting mode ) . If a sound plays unendingly , the radar has locked onto our aircraft and is in rails mode , and thus the buffer ’s straightaway attention is demanded . In some cases , the RWR can tell if the radar is in launch mode ( sending radar data to a passive radiolocation - guided missile ) , or if the radar is that of an fighting radiolocation - guided missile . In either of these cases , a classifiable projectile launch tone is toy and the pilot program is advised to immediately play to counter the threat . Note that the RWR has no way of knowing if a heat - seek missile is on its way to our aircraft .
Aside from radiolocation , there are other technology that are used to interlock on to foe aircraft and dry land prey . A targeting seedpod is a very powerful tv camera mounted on an articulating swivel that allow it to expect in well-nigh every direction . This camera is connected to image central processing unit that is able to order apart vehicle and edifice from surrounding terrain , and track moving targets . This is the SNIPER XR place cod :
And this is what the pilot sees when he operates it :
The seedpod is able-bodied to track vehicles solar day and night , using visual or infra - red cameras . Heat - seek missiles obviously apply this same technology to home in on aircraft , and electro - optical missiles use this engineering to give chase ground targets .
Lastly , there are laser - guided missile as well . These “ electron beam riders ” follow a optical maser irradiation emanating from the aircraft to the target . Many ground vehicles utilise laser rangefinder as well , and some aircraft include a laser warning system ( LWS ) that works similarly to an RWR , but showing incoming laser signals instead .
Image : Getty / USAF
How does a fighter jet lock onto and keep track of an foeman aircraft?originally appeared onQuora . you may follow Quora onTwitter , Facebook , andGoogle+ .
This answer has been lightly edited for grammar and pellucidity .
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