{"id":2524,"date":"2015-03-14T22:31:28","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T22:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=2524"},"modified":"2015-03-14T22:31:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T22:31:28","slug":"how-fighter-jets-target-and-lock-on-enemy-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/how-fighter-jets-target-and-lock-on-enemy-jets\/","title":{"rendered":"How fighter jets target and lock on enemy jets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The main\u00a0technology that a military aircraft takes advantage of\u00a0to lock on and track an enemy aircraft is its onboard mounted radar. Aircraft monitors\u00a0generally\u00a0have two modes: search and track. In search mode, the radar sweeps a radio beam across the sky in a zig-zag pattern. When the radio beam is reflected by a target aircraft, an indication appears on one of the pilot’s radar display. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an example of the fire control radar display for an F-16 Fighting Falcon when the radar is in a search mode:<\/p>\n

\"How<\/span><\/p>\n

Each white brick is a radar return. Because the radar is only scanning, not tracking, no other information is available about the radar targets. (There is one exception: The Doppler shift of the radar return can be measured, to estimate how fast the aircraft traveling towards or away from you, much like the pitch of an inbound\u00a0train’s whistle can tell you how fast it’s coming at you. This is displayed as the small white trend line originating from each brick.)<\/p>\n

Note that the cursors 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 track mode. In track mode, the radar focuses its energy on a particular target. Because the radar is actually tracking a target, and not just displaying bricks when it gets a reflection back, it can tell the pilot a lot more about the target. This is what the F-16’s fire control radar display looks like when a target is locked:<\/p>\n

\"How<\/span><\/p>\n

Along the top we have a lot of information about what our radar target is doing<\/strong>:<\/p>\n