What type of radar do fighter jets use?
Passive radar missiles dorequire a radar lock, because these missiles use the aircraft’s reflected radar energy to track the target. Active radar missiles however have their own onboard radar, which locks and tracks a target.
What do pilots say when they fire a missile?
“Fox” is short for “foxtrot”, the NATO phonetic designation for the letter “F”, which is short for “fire”. The radio call announcing that a weapon has been fired is intended to help avoid friendly fire, cueing other pilots to avoid maneuvering into the path of harm.
What kind of radar do fighter jets use?
This can also be used by the target aircraft to identify the type of radar being used, and therefore possibly, the type of aircraft. In this display, the RWR has detected an F-15 (15 with a hat on it indicating aircraft) at the 7-o’clock position.
How does a fighter jet lock on without radar?
Without a radar lock, the seeker head scans the sky looking for “bright” (hot) objects, and when it finds one, it plays a distinctive whining tone to the pilot. The pilot does not need radar in this case, he just needs to maneuver his aircraft until he has “good tone,” and then fire the missile.
How does a fighter jet know when it is in search mode?
In search mode, no single aircraft is being tracked, but the pilot can usually tell generally what a particular radar return is doing because with each successive sweep, the radar return moves slightly. This is an example of the fire control radar display for an F-16 Fighting Falcon when the radar is in a search mode:
Can a missile be fired with no radar lock?
It is possible to fire an active radar missile with no radar lock (so-called “maddog”); in this case, the missile will fly until it’s nearly out of fuel, and then it will turn on its radar and pursue the first target it sees. This is not a recommended strategy if there are friendly aircraft in close proximity to the enemy.