Airplanes flying in exercises carry an ACMI pod and a captive inert AIM-9M (Google aggressor pics and you’ll see the AIM-9). The AIM-9M automatically searches a conical area defined by +/- 15 degrees off the nose, but the seeker can also be slewed by the pilot to 30 degrees off the nose using a “coolie hat” switch on the stick (Google “Sidewinder Expanded Acquisition Mode”). When the Squadron Leader says he cannot “put weapons on it”, that would include the MWIR AIM-9M seeker.
And none of that is mentioned to be used in the article. Can you backup your claims or this is just speculation? Also comparing Sidewinder to dedicated optical system is pointless.
No it doesn’t. The RAF and RAAF pilots mentioned were exchange pilots with the F-15 units, and as such wouldn’t have had any optical or IR system to mess about with.
I received the same answer before, but it’s always nice to ask, when somebody post “cannot be targeted with any weapons”.
I haven’t seen any mention of optical(or other) systems use against the Raptor(or the performance). The problem with optical/IR systems is they work best if they’re cued by other information, as their search volumes are very limited compared to radar. There’s a lot of sky to search if you don’t know where to look.
And the world it’s not a perfect place, so there can be long-wave radar that can give basic info where that predator in the sky is.
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