46
votes
Accepted
How do helicopters avoid detection from enemies by using IR suppressors?
An IR sensor detects objects that are at a higher (or lower but that's not how missiles work) temperature than the surrounding environment, most of the helicopter won't be that much hotter or cooler ...
- 54.2k
25
votes
Accepted
How do internally carried IR missiles acquire a lock?
If you are referring to the Sidewinder missile, the first iteration AIM-9X did not have a requirement to be launched from internal stores, known as captive carry, but in testing it demonstrated that ...
- 13.2k
23
votes
Accepted
Can anti-radiation missiles be used to target stealth fighter aircraft?
There are many anti-radiation missiles in many arsenals, they are designed for air to ground missions, attacking surface to air missile radars from a long distance. I don't know whether it would be ...
- 54.2k
20
votes
Image recognition in air to air missiles
It is used by modern missiles. Military isn't the birthplace for every tech, but they've been working on image recognition long before the general public heard the term "image recognition". ...
- 28.3k
17
votes
How do helicopters avoid detection from enemies by using IR suppressors?
To add to GdD's fine answer:
The environment provides plenty of different heat sources for the missile to see. To get a target lock, the "signature" of the heatsource has to be of quite a specific ...
- 30k
15
votes
Accepted
Image recognition in air to air missiles
Modern missiles are using computer vision or image processing technology.
Obviously, for this to work you need an image, which is typically provided by an image-generating IR-sensor (note that this ...
- 4,890
15
votes
Can anti-radiation missiles be used to target stealth fighter aircraft?
If the stealth aircraft's radar were continually transmitting, then, yes, the other stealth features would be completely useless, and missiles would easily home in on them and shoot them down. Which ...
- 12.8k
12
votes
Accepted
Do different types of missiles indicate different lock tones to the pilot?
Lock tones are normally used for (surface/air)-to-air infrared homing missiles. Air-to-surface missiles don't "growl".
The tone is used to indicate missile readiness and quality of lock, not the type....
- 358
10
votes
Can anti-radiation missiles be used to target stealth fighter aircraft?
Yes, but such aircraft can turn off their active emissions (radar, EM jammer, communications etc etc.). And AESA radars can be very select about in which directions it emit to not make the aircraft ...
- 1,732
8
votes
Can anti-radiation missiles be used to target stealth fighter aircraft?
I don't have rep to comment, so this answer is more of a side note, that stealth fighters have been trackable for decades. The TAMARA radio system from what was Tesla Electronics (former ...
- 81
8
votes
Can anti-radiation missiles be used to target stealth fighter aircraft?
As an addition to other answers:
To form a picture of the battlefield situation, the radar system of a stealth aircraft (or any radar for that matter) does not need to transmit all the time. It can ...
- 30k
5
votes
Accepted
Which one has a higher success rate between Infrared homing and Radar homing missiles, for air to air combat?
This topic is very broad, and there is copious material available on it. Therefore, this answer will be generalized.
IR targeting is very useful against jet engine aircraft, because there is a ...
- 17.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Can the Apache detect infrared (IR) lock?
I think I have answered my own question from a little bit of research.
Warfare systems such as Laser and Radar are detectable because they are active emissions (i.e. They have to make their own ...
- 159
4
votes
How is a missile lock detected?
Before we talk about lock-on, let's consider the WWII battle between the RAF's u-boat hunting radars and the Metox radar detector on the German submarines.
The RAF introduced their first sub-hunting ...
- 1,536
4
votes
Acceleration command in proportional navigation?
The control structure for a typical missile looks something like this:
As you can see, the PN-Guidance command is carried out by a dedicated acceleration controller. This has a couple of resons:
...
- 4,890
4
votes
Acceleration command in proportional navigation?
If I remember correctly you can derive the angular rotation speed during a stationary turn from the acceleration command by just dividing by the current velocity:
q_rate = acceleration / speed
To ...
- 2,442
3
votes
Accepted
Are there countermeasures for semi-active laser homing SAM?
Ground targets do have countermeasures against laser guided munitions in the way of smoke screens, for example on the Shtora-1 or Arena Active Protection Systems. These disperse an aerosol that ...
- 8,611
3
votes
F-16 low speed SAM avoidance tactics?
The missile works by predicting where the airplane will be. If you maneuver, it has to re-adjust, wasting energy.
When the missile has lost enough energy, it'll eventually fail to re-adjust.
Now ...
- 819
3
votes
Accepted
How does an AMRAAM communicate securely with the aircraft that launched it?
Do you have a need to know?
Fortunately, there is a simpler answer to your question: the original AMRAAM does not communicate with the host aircraft. Only the host aircraft communicates data to the ...
- 28.3k
2
votes
What is the heat signature of a piston engine, relative to a jet engine?
Here is a color IR image of what I believe to be another F6F, on the tarmac shortly after landing:
As you can see, the engine cowling is very noticeable, as are the tires (from touchdown and braking)....
- 23k
2
votes
Accepted
What are the specific features of TY-90?
The TY-90 is considerably larger than a MANPADS - 1.9m long and nearly 25 kg in weight.
MANPADS are restricted by human size and strength to about 15 kg for the missile.
A larger missile translates ...
- 28.3k
1
vote
Acceleration command in proportional navigation?
I also tried missile autopilots, but they seemed too complex for the task at hand.
They are exactly as complex as required for the task at hand.
Missile dynamics are extremely complicated. There are ...
- 17.6k
1
vote
Can anti-radiation missiles be used to target stealth fighter aircraft?
In theory - yes. In practice - I dont think so.
The aircraft should emit radar wave easy to detect - won't remain stealthy anymore. Rare case, improbable.
Most of the ARM's software and flight ...
- 21
1
vote
F-16 low speed SAM avoidance tactics?
This incident is documented at p. 62 in:
https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2016/January%202016/0116packageq.pdf
it is even linked to in the Youtube video, however, these ...
- 4,007
1
vote
F-16 low speed SAM avoidance tactics?
In re Question #1: No he could not as the jet was probably in full burner at the time of the maneuvers and he needed Max AB plus exchanging potential energy for kinetic energy in a dive to make the ...
- 74.6k
1
vote
How practical is laser designation against helicopters?
There are a number of laser-guided ground-to-air systems, and a number of those have been adapted to air-to-air and air-to-ground as well. The key is the speed of the missile, not so much the guidance ...
- 1,536
1
vote
Could an AN/APG-79 AESA radar "lock-on" a single bird?
Depending on the radar, the accuracy fallow might be too big for a smaller object as radar resolution and accuracy matter a great deal in detecting and hitting a small target, that is why usually ...
- 11
1
vote
Can the Apache detect infrared (IR) lock?
No. IR threat warning systems detect the energy from the missile.
- 442
1
vote
What is the ultraviolet signature, if any, of aircraft and jet engines?
Contrary to the suggestions in replies to this question the UV seeker of the FIM-92 Stinger looks for the "shadow" created by an aircraft against the relatively bright UV background of the sky. The ...
- 111
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible