If it was trivial as you suggest, then we wouldn’t see specialized IR systems at all. In fact often attack pods have multiple separate cameras. LANTIRN, for example, has FLIR in two separate pods – one with fixed wide FoV field, other with zoomable optics for narrow view. LITENING has two TV cameras and one FLIR sensor, and so on. They wouldn’t bother with multiple cameras if they could just do all that with zoomable optics.

LANTIRN has 2 pod : 1 is targeting pod and the other is navigating pod.The navigating pod has a terrain following radar and a thermal camera for short range navigation . Basically a night vision system that help pilot look outside , while the targeting pod help pilot look at target at distance target at the sametime.

LITENING has 1 pod only and all the CCD and FLIR sensors are included in a single pod just like Sniper-XR.

Yes, in theory. And to some extent in practice too, but you will end up having bulky optical system with inferior optical quality. There is a reason why photographers generally carry a bag of different lenses and change them depending on their needs, instead of one zoomable lens which does everything.

I dont think you realise how big those thermal system are. More than enough space to change the focal length around

So I’m other words at a given time these ships can target only 2 incoming threats using sea sparrows?

There could be more with Interrupted Continuous Wave Illumination. Main FCR is used for mid course guide and illuminator only used in the last phase

EOTS allow you to ID the fighter, DAS does not have that ability at any range

DAS can ID the target

Thanks for that. Any specs on it? AN/ALR-94 is said to have a range greater than 250 nmi. I’ve heard when the F-22 is flying a certain altitude the AN/ALR-94 range is much higher

There is no max range for a passive system. It all depending on transmitting power of the radar. Then coding and what not.Obviously the range will be higher at higher altitude due to radar horizon

There were rumors sometime back that the AN/ALR-94 can provide an AIM-120 with most of the information it requires with fairly good accuracy

lacks range and velocity

Journal of Electronic Defense; Bill Sweetman

The F-22 represents a radical departure from the traditional approach to EW. Passive systems, once considered to be defensive in nature, are now critical to detecting, tracking and even attacking the target.

High-priority emitters — such as fighter aircraft at close range — can be tracked in real time by the ALR-94. In this mode, called narrowband interleaved search and track (NBILST), the radar is used only to provide precise range and velocity data to set up a missile attack. If a hostile aircraft is injudicious in its use of radar, the ALR-94 may provide nearly all the information necessary to launch an AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile (AAM)

only thing F-35 got going for it is EOTS, and while not as good as an IR camera optimized for A2A,
its an awful lot better than what F-22 has (nuffing)

TBH, There is no real evidence as to why EOTS should be inferior to others IRST like OLS-35 or FSO.. etc in air to air role.

Let’s hope that with folding fins they can fit 2 per F-35 bay without needing mods.

I dont think it fit AA station though

actually, the AoA means little as what counts is the generation of lift. one strong point of the close coupled canard (and reason it has been chosen for the Rafale) is that the canards allow for better control of airflow over the wings, which in turn, allow for more lift for similar AoA without them. That’s why it cn have such a low approach speed despite being a delta, like, say, the mirage 2000

Not really, Cannard will improve CL at the same AoA by creating vortex just like a LERX or chine .But that only help to a certain extent ,aircraft AoA still play very important role.

PAK-FA front LEVCONs and F-35 chines also have the same purpose