This is the video showing the new radar mode:
The following is a what I commented on the good old r/hoggit:
However, you can have a general idea of the range and the altitude as well. Range is easy: if it’s shown in VS but not in RWS, then the target is in that particular range. With a bit of experience, you’ll learn the distance it represents. For example, in the Tomcat, we can start by seeing a faint AGC trace at ~130+ nm, then the target appears on the DDD with no ranging information at ~110+ nm. Then, at 90nm, we have ranging information. This, plus mission / briefing info or RWR returns, allow the RIO to assess, more or less, who and where the target is, or at least the type of target and its approximative location.
The altitude is a bit trickier: with no range, trigonometry does not work right away (I have charts for this stuff, btw). However, by checking with radar bar is used to display or refresh the return, we can tell if the target is co-altitude, lower or higher than our aircraft. In the Tomcat, with 8 bars, we can be a bit more refined because the Elevation Indicator displays the degrees of the bar itself (perhaps the Hornet does that as well, I’m not too familiar with it). Plus, there are 8 bars.
With all mentioned above, we can also approximate the target’s speed. A non-drifting target on the b-scope, for example, has probably low TA (although drift may be hard to assess in PD at those ranges). If both aircraft are hot on each other, then Vc is, more or less, the sum of the Velocities.
Therefore:
Where γ is a quantity aimed at reflecting the non Parallel Head-On situation.
The thing is, it does not matter if the altitude is off, as the goal is building SA, for example, prioritising hot, high and fast targets. As any RIO will tell you, very high VC stand out on the DDD like a proverbial sore thumb.
Altitude-wise, the EL indicator is almost co-alt, and the target’s altitude is therefore comparable to the Hornet’s.
This is much easier when the display is observed over time, rather than watching a few seconds from someone else’s video.
- Vc;
- ATA;
- drift;
- approximated range;
- approximated speed;
- approximated altitude;
- assess variation in TA (using drift and Vc).
Not too bad, isn’t it? 🙂
The only issue is that all this is a bit labour-intensive. In the Tomcat, this is RIO 101, I suppose most RIOs use this all the time when building SA. However, in a single-seater aircraft, perhaps whilst maintaining formation in adverse weather or night, it can be a lot. Nevertheless, it is a great mode to start building SA early, perhaps pre-setting your radar to focus on a certain area, and so on. Then, as the range decreases, you get more info using RWS/TWS.
Fun fact: Wags did not like my criticism towards DCS apparently, and hid my comment to his video. 🙁
I thought the same thing! I said to myself, hell that’s just pd search mode like the awg-9. It made feel good to have spent the time learning the foundations of the awg-9.