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From: daly@strawber.princeton.edu (John Daly)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Vulnerability of modern fighters
Message-ID: <1991May18.050951.10890@amd.com>
Date: 17 May 91 13:41:15 GMT
References: <1991May15.060829.3052@amd.com> <1991May16.052804.17718@amd.com> <1991May17.063036.1080@amd.com>
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From: daly@strawber.princeton.edu (John Daly)


ELEC140@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (Chris Kaiser) writes:
>henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>> 80%+ of all victims of air combat never even see the attacker, much less
>> have a chance to maneuver against him.

I suspect this is still true.  Most good pilots can evade what they can see.

> 1) What are the limitations of a fighter's radar? Do aircraft such as the F-14
> or Tornado interceptor have an all-round (ie. 360 degree) radar capability?

No.  It's more like a 120 degree cone in front of the nose.  This is why a
controller (eg: AWACS) is so valuable in air-to-air conflicts.  A friend of
an A-7 pilot explained to me how his A-7 downed an F-14 in a navy exercise.
The A-7 was cruising at low altitude when the pilot found himself in visual
contact with a Tomcat high above him and headed away.  The A-7 went to full
military power and climbed.  It took a while to catch up to the F-14, but he
managed to score a similuated kill.  The F-14 has a radar with a 150 mile
range, but the crew still has to "check six".  The most important component
in a fighter is an alert aircrew.  Otherwise, a Tomcat's no harder to shoot
down than a Cessna.

> 2) If they have radar blind spots (such as to the rear) do they have any means
> to detect the radar emissions of other aircraft? (eg. an enemy fighter with a
> radar lock on them from the rear)

Yes.  It's similar to the device you buy for your car to detect police radar.