Precisely the oposite, quite a number of modern Jets have that capability, and any modern AEW will do precisely what Witcha described.
Its called “Non-Cooperative Target Recognition”.
The first aircraft that fielded an efective NCTR radar mode was the USAF F-15C around 1985, since then it has become a standard.Decent descriptions here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/scs/people/academic-research-staff/herve-borrion/publications/processing-techniques.pdf
http://www.cis.jhu.edu/~sanchez/ENST_memoria_Thales.pdfFor the last time, an Aérospatiale_Alouette will be detected, tracked and destroyed wether its moving or hovering, its irrelevant.
An Helicopter actually presents a lot less dificulty to detect and positively ID than the typical “Technical” that NATO used has target practice in Libia.
wow i have just read about it here
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dheb/2300/Articles/PG/PGSA.htm
Out of the mid-1970s ‘Musketeer’ program, the idea of using radar to count the fan blades in the contact’s engine (front or back) to identify aircraft was thought possible. This radar signature was unique to each aircraft (sometimes different models of the same aircraft). This technology, known as NCTR (Non Co-operative Target Recognition), had to wait until mid-1980s computer technology caught up. From 1985 USAF F-15C had NCTR modes added. During the 1990-1991 Gulf War, the USAF decided the ROE would be for each fighter requiring two methods of IDing a target. One method was AWACS, the other accepted method was NCTR. F-15C were the only coalition fighters allowed to operate over Iraq, NCTR was one of the reasons. During the next 10 years NCTR was fitted to US F-14, F-16 and F-18s, selected foreign F-15 , UK Tornado F.3 (early-mid 1990s), and French Mirage 2000-5F in the near future
thank for these information 🙂 quite strange for me :p
but does that mean the decoy like ALE-50 or even ITALD , MALD-J actually useless against any aircraft or SAM that have radar able to do NCTR ( cause if they can count the blade that also mean they can actually see the shape of the plane ? right )
Another question that isnot very relevant : why the range of sea-surface search mode of fighter radar is quite short , i used to think that due to the ship moving so slow so it’s harder to find them in the clutter of moving wave , but if the radar can see the shape of the ship then what prevent it from detecting the ship at max range ( i mean ship often have rcs= 10000 m2 – 50000 m2 but in sea-surface search mode fighter can only detected a destroyer at 200-300 km )
Fighter radars have enough discrimination to be able to identify a fighter by counting the rotor blades in its engine through inlet ducts
no fighter have that kind of ability , even the AWACs can’t do that
-IR paint on a helo isn’t going to completely mask its heat signature. In any case most modern fighters will also have IR paint.
ir paint can’t completely mask the heli’s IR signature but it will make it extremely hard to find them , and even if the jet can be paint with IR paint their much higher speed and air resistance will always make them a much hotter target than the heli , easy to find , not to mention that jet are often fly higher so it will be easier for the pilot on the heli to find them ( hot target on the sky background ) by contrast the heli fly at lower altitude so it will be really hard for the jet to find a warm target on the warm ground back ground
-And as obligatory said the helo pilot won’t telepathically know when to hover; he’s likely to get picked up by the fighter’s radar by the time he figures out he’s on the enemy’s radar.
new helicopter will be equip with powerful radar as well (for example ka-52 will be equip with zhuk-ae radar from mig-35) so they can find the jet as well , they can start hovering right at the moment they see the jet on radar screen
it seem that detected slow moving target is a very very hard work for fighter’s radar even the modern one ,
for example the Zhuk-AE on mig-35 can detected an air target with RCS of 5 m2 at 130 km but against a naval target like a destroyer ( rcs about 10000 m2 ) the range is only 200 km
http://defense-update.com/features/du-1-07/aesaradar_zhuk_AE.htm
US claims form Gulf War in 1991: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_engagements_of_the_Gulf_War#USAF_A-10A_vs._IRAF_Bo-105
Although these are mainly transport helicopters. Didn’t a number of UK helicopters get downed by Pucara aircraft in 1982?ISTR the F-15E LGB kill was recorded on LANTIRN pod. This was against a hovering suprised helo.
BTW helo blades spin at something like 400 rpm (they need to subsonic). Its not so much the blades as the rotor head that shows up on radar. Case in point the RAH-66 and its cleaned up rotor head.
The E-8C with its radar in MTI can detect helicopters, and rotating ground radars (6-10 rpm). It can also classify targets as a helicopter due its rotating blades and stationary radars operating.
even the E-8 with it’s huge , powerful radar can only do this
the radar has a limited capability to detect helicopters, rotating antennas and low, slow-moving fixed-wing aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_E-8_Joint_STARS
i don’t think the jet fighter’s small radar have any chance
and in the past the jet fighter can use it’s FLIR to find the heli very easy but now due to the improvement of reduce IR paint i think it would be much much harder
In case of a Zhuk equipped Ka 52 facing of a say Mig 29 , even if there RCS are the same..the Mig 29 will always have the first shot as its fcs will arrive at a firing solution at a longer distance away because it also takes into account the airspeed and the kinematic range of the missile will be longer than when fired from the helo.
With a good HMD and a HOBS missile the helicopter may have a chance… If it were facing an outdated fighter with bad radar and old WVR missiles.
Normally, it’s no contest. Any modern fighter with an AMRAAM-equivalent missile will have taken out the helicopter long before it even enters targeting rage of those AIM-9s or (for Russian and European helos) Igla/Mistral MANPAD pods.
the problem here is not the range of missile , i know jet fighter can fire missile from much much further than helicopter , however like i have said before , it seem that because jet and air to air missile use doppler radar the helicopter will become invisible when they are hovering ,jet fighter may use something like FLIR pod to find the helicopter but helicopter have a much lower IR signature , not to mention the intermat paint, they will always see the jet first , even if the jet can find and attack the helicopter with an IR missile, the heli can always use DIRCM
+radar guide missile can’t see a stationary target ( hovering heli )
+ir guide missile either can’t find the helicopter due to the anti IR paint or be defeated by DIRCM
Rotor blades in general are a huge no-no for radar cross section. I doubt it matters whether the helicopter is moving or not. And in any event modern radars likely have software for discriminating between chaff and rotor blades.
i don’t really think the radar will be able to discriminating between the roto and chaff cause they have pretty the same signature characteristic , and modern heli can easy detect jet by either their radar (ex : ka-52) or their FLIR (any heli ) when the heli find the jet they will immediately stop moving and become invisible to the jet , i think the heli actually a great threat :confused:, cause i havenot head of any case the radar on a jet can detected a hovering helicopter
Some anecdotal evidence, Tu-95, an otherwise awe impressing a/c,
has the radar return that of a large ship due to the props.
And it was a problem with semi active missiles when the launcher had to keep painting the target, and thus keep flying towards it, closing range so it would eat a short range missile in return, that is no longer the case with active missiles.
i know the blade have large radar return , and i know if the heli is moving there will be no problem for the fighter to shot down it, but what if the heli is hover stationary will the blade show on the jet’s radar screen 😎 because the heli blades actually spinning in a small circle so will they be rejected by the radar just like chaff:)
However, the last I heard in the late 1990s, the total kill success in exercises for both the Marine Cobras and the Army AH-64 Apaches (equipped with air-launched Stingers) was about 10-15 helos “shot down” for every jet fighter “downed”.
If you add in the transport helos “down” the ratio is far, far worse!
could you give me link about these exercises :p just curious what the new tatic the jet have
DJCross is right, there´s no contest, the doppler return was a real problem for the likes of the AN/APQ-72 (back in 1978), not today. The heli blades are a gigantic radar return beacon. Today against a decent equiped FJ fleet the Helicopter will not only get detected, it will get locked. targeted and destroyed, the heli can be moving or hovering, its indiferent.
There´s one good reason why no one tries to go “mano to mano” with FJ using Heli´s, its a suicide.
i know the heli blades are gigantic radar return beacon but they donot move for a long distance like an air plane but rather stay spin in a circle will the radar screen show them :rolleyes:
in this situation the heli not hover but moving slow
No contest.
Doppler radar sees the flicker of advancing and retreating rotor blades quite well.
i dont think it will see it as a target , much slower than chaff release at high speed , and these radar reject chaff:diablo:
You have a point on the doppler radar, and it becomes really hard with ground background, -tho how will the helo pilot know when its time to hover ?
and here’s a pic of that thermal paint at work.
i said it an ambush and actually even if it not the heli can still use radar or flir to detected the jet and then hovering
btw in the picture there are 2 cars , the other one which is painted is invisible
So do you guy think something like aim-120 , meteor or R-77 can operate in the same maner:rolleyes:
1.5 seconds is an eternity to a computerized shad. It lives only to quickly die. Too much warning and a ship defense will neutralize it.
:confused: NSM’s sensor is passive so i think i doesnot give any warning to the ship at all
From what i read on some website it seem that NSM is not a very good missile as it’s seeker only have 1.5 sec to acquire target:confused: , with the speed of mach 0.8 it mean that NSM ‘s sensor can only detected enemy ship at 400 metter:confused: .Not impress at all isn’t it, compared to any other radar guide missile