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From: ke4zv!gary@gatech.edu (Gary Coffman)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Radars in Fighters, AWACS, etc.
Message-ID: <1991Mar18.135619.20917@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 18 Mar 91 13:56:19 GMT
References: <1991Mar12.232220.29870@cbnews.att.com>
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From: ke4zv!gary@gatech.edu (Gary Coffman)

In article <1991Mar12.232220.29870@cbnews.att.com> cognos!geovision!pt@dciem (Paul Tomblin) writes:
>
>I remember reading some time ago that the F-14 could turn off it's radar,
>and the pilot and back seat guy would still see stuff on their radar 
>screens from the other radars around, such as the carrier, the AWACS, and
>other fighters with radars on.  At the time, I sort of assumed that there
>would have to be some sort of wireless data link, but now I'm wondering it
>that is correct, or if what the article really meant was that the  F14 radar
>just passively used the reflections from other radars.

While you can get a bearing from passive reflections, I don't see how
you could get range or closing speed information without tight coordination
with the illuminating radar. It's necessary to know the precise timing
and frequency of the particular radar pulse you are receiving to derive
range and doppler information. It is conceivable that, if you are 
between the illuminating radar and the target, you could sample the
pulse as it passes you and recover the information necessary to process
the reflection. That would seem to be a relatively unlikely situation
however.

Gary