Toan, appreciate your effort, but frankly, this detection, tracking stuff is absolute guesswork.

That is exactly what I want to mean: guesswork, declaration, estimation….. You can take the most optimistic declaration and estimation of Russian radar(s) and believe it is superior than APG-77, APG-79, APG-81, APG-63V3/4, and Captor etc, but others can also take the most optimistic declaration and estimation of APG-77, APG-79, APG-81, APG-63V3, or Captor and say it should be the best radar of all…….but finally, no one will be able to confirm which one is really the best of best, since we have no idea if they are compared under the same and fair condition.

Kopp made his own estimation and assumption in ausairpower.net, but it is not necessarily the golden evidence to prove that Su-35BM’s radar must be superior to any American fighter’s AESA radar except APG-77.

It should be supposed the frontal RCS of modern cruise missiles such as JASSM and Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG.

The three V bombers: The first time that RAF got long range nuclear striking capability.

Lightening interceptors: The first time that RAF got Mach 2+ class high altitude intercepting capability.

F-4K Phantom II: The first time that RAF got BVR combat capability.

Harrier GR1: The first time that RAF got VTOL / STOVL capability.

Tornado F3: The first time that RAF got the capabilities of MIDS, AIM-120, and ASRAAM.

Eurofighter: The first time that RAF got the capabilities of meaningful supercruise, high-degree negative stability, 6-7G class supersonic agility, DASS + TRD IEWS, Pirate IIRST, advanced HMD, and data-fusion / cockpit MMI revolution.

F-35B: The first time that RAF got the capabilities of supersonic VTOL / STOVL, stealth, AESA radar, and 360-degrees IIRST / TV image capability.

On 2007/11/15, a RAF XI squadron’s Typhoon（FGR4 ZJ939’DXI’）finished EF-2000’s first LGB firing test

1. Configuration: One 1,000 L fuel tank and two GBU-16.

2. Flight path: Climbing to the height of 39,000 fts with the speed of 0.85 Mach, and after reaching the target, the fighter had circled around the target for 20 minutes before it flew down to the height of 5,000 fts, threw its LGB and then flew back (high-low-high profile).

3. Endurance / range of this mission: 1 hr and 45 mins / more than 700 nm (1,296 km).

According to the declaration of a French navy pilot, Damocles designation pods, which should use the similar IIR techonology as OSF IRST, could help him to identify the image appearance of Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier at the range of around 30 nm / 55 km.

As for OSF, according to the French airforce pilot’s experience in 2006 Tiger Meet exercise, it should be able to make the image identification to the opponents like F/A-18C and Tornado at the range of 9 to 16 nm (17 to 30 km) or even more in head to head engagement.

Personally, I think the performance of Pirate in Detection / Image identification range, should be similar to the OSF since they use the same IIR optronic techonology.

FSO (IRST + TV + Laser range finder):

1. Maximal detective range, A2A: 70 nm / 130 km at 20,000 fts.

2. Maximal detective range, A2G: 60 nm / 110 km at low level.

3. Maximal effective range of image identification: near 30 nm / 55 km.

4. Maximal effective range for laser range finder: 22 to 40 km.

5. 2006 Tiger Meet (http://www.dassault-aviation.com/index.php?id=940&L=1):

* The forward sector optronics (FSO) system was particularly popular with the aircrews, who were impressed by its performance: “By cueing the FSO with the tracks provided by his radar or by another aircraft via Link 16, a pilot can easily identify an aggressor force at a range of several tens of nautical miles. For example, he can pick up two Tornados and an F/A-18 preparing to penetrate at 20,000ft and the three other F/A-18s, easy to identify with their twin tails, protecting them at 40,000ft.”

* Lt. Col. Pagès underlines. “We were able to confirm that the high degree of sensor fusion gave us a clear advantage in our awareness of the tactical situation. Rafale crews were able to positively identify targets at a much greater distance than other aircraft. It is well known that in more and more cases the rules of engagement require that the target be identified before attacking, which may lead a fighter to fly within three or four nautical miles of the target. With the Rafale, this distance is multiplied by three, four or even more in some cases, which considerably boosts safety and the chances of success.”

TWS range is given with beyond 160 km against a 5 sqm target. The radar can track more than 20 targets simultaneously and engage at least six of them including MCG for BVR missiles.

Captor is capable of tracking the standard fighter, or MIG-29 size target at the range beyond 160 km or 185 km according to different sources of data.

An UK test pilot declared that Captor could track (“not just detect” he emphasized) the fighter size target at the range of 185 km+ away according to the special report of the earliest RAF magazine.

Another intersting report for Captor-M and Captor-E:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/05/29/224274/ila-2008-aesa-radar-solution-now-for-typhoons.html

Ok, is the Captor E a firm part of T3 or an “option”?

A: No user of Eurofighter right now has made the firm requirement for procuring and equipping Captor-E radar to its T3 fighters, so personally, I would view Captor-E as a possible option right now.

Also is Meteor intended for all partners or just the UK?

A:

Six partner nation governments signed the contract of full-scale development and production of Meteor on 23 December 2002: UK, France, German, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

All of the six partner nation governments have declared that they will procure Meteor AAM, but right now, it seems only UK has paid the bill (GBP1200m fixed-price contract) for its procurement.

What exactly will T3 bring to the Table vs T2?

A: Still unknown ~ we can only sure that any new equipment or capability for T3 will also be able to bring to T2 after serial upgradings.