BTW, I’m curious as to why people now believe antenna size has nothing to do with radar range when threads right here like the MMRCA ones should have made its relevance abundantly clear by now.
Bigger size = More T/R modules and/or room for larger, more powerful transmitters = Better range if required
.
first,”people” think that size of a TRM isnt a problem in S or L-band, so you can have 2000 or 200, the emitted watt of those is what matters.
In recieving mode the size can amplify(or gain if you like) the reciever signal, but this also depends much of the rest of the antenna layout. so bigger isnt always better. so if you have less layout restrictions you can make a better antenna, thats beat a bigger antenna.
For X-band fighter nose radar thats another story. first the antenna area can be very small due to the higher frequencies. So for a certain area there is a certain amount of antennas at optimum (simplified).
So if Rafale is using 800 or 1000 TRM does not matter, its the total emitted watt that still matter for range.
If every Rafale TRM crank 10W thats 10kW for a 1000TRM antenna.
If every TRM instead crank 20W on a 800TRM antenna thats 16kW.
The big problem for a small nose plane is the direct cooling of the TRMs. The cooling relates much to the diameter of the antenna area.
Sign In
