Yeah, I am not sure why they accomplish this, my guess is they slave the missile’s seeker head to the plane’s EOTS rather than the opposite so when the missiles is launched it “knows” which way to turn to achieve lock. Lot’s of instantaneous calculations must be taking place there..
You are thinking old school.
In the F-35 it works like this and is the same for either a LOAL 9x or AMRAAM shot:
1. The F-35 calculates the target’s GPS location and velocity (ie bearing, acceleration, and speed) based on any & all sensors or datalinks available (ie sensor fusion).
2. It passes that information to the 9x or AMRAAM (9x Blk2 & 120D use GPS internally while older missiles use traditional INS) along with the F-35’s GPS coordinates & velocity.
3. The missile is launched & will follow the flightpath calculated using data from #2
4. Any F-35 in the area can supply updated data via datalinks where appropriate
5. THe AMRAAM D can also answer back via it’s 2way datalink
The key takeaway is that the weapon is not “linked” to a particular sensor or a particular fighter after launch.
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