Regrettably, all fully disclosed PL12 missile body designation numbers are labeled as SD10A, whether used by the PLAAF or the Pakistan Air Force.
tr-77 and aim-120 use planar slot antenna, and the biggest difference is that they have slots, that’s how it works.
the small holes in pl-15e’s seeker should be sockets for aesa units. the unites are blown off, only the back plate and limiting frame with jagged edge
like this
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Also notice that this is not a ‘movable’ plate, it’s stationary. Also btw there are pics of PL15 falling into people’s backyard. Can’t send the images here. But have a look in this
thread
Those were in India.
Yeah I saw the picture online and that’s why I questioned here.
I’m not convinced it’s AESA
Well I mean no better proof than this. Do u have anything that works against it or any other AESA seeker?
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It doesn’t look different than standard non-ESA radar antenna; In fact it looks older like 9B-1103M.
Here are some newer types:
Here is an alleged 64 module AESA antenna for the R-77M, I don’t know if this is accurate.
The only thing the PL-15E seeker seems to have in common with these is the squared off segments, which is shared by both ESA and non ESA arrays. The slots of the backside are no indicator of ESA or not.
Look at AAM-4B seeker.
Could you provide an image or is that not suitable for the forum?
Yeah, that looks more like the top photo I posted
Spoiler
These are more modern seeker types, the PL-15E seeker appears to use slots similar to 9B-1103M (albeit a little different). I see no TR modules and while it is possible that it is AESA I will remain highly skeptical of such claims.
I’ve the original picture for allegedly AAM-4B;
So it has roughly 3x the T/R modules of the PL-15E? Would you not concur that the PL-15E is either extremely poor AESA or a semi-advanced non-ESA radar?
Non-ESA is more likely. I am not into chinese missiles, but since PL-15E is an export variant (I think?), its head was likely replaced with a Planar Array or anything like that but ESA.
T/R modules are independent of the board and that is the reason the board is plain, because this is in fact likely the back board, and the wires would have gone through those holes to T/R modules. A reminder that other than T/R modules, all other radar seekers are integrated.
As seen, the radr antenna is largely 1 ‘board’ or one plate. With TR modules however the plate at the back simply the support for the T/R modules.
Also it is known that PL15 has AESA seeker. Whilst it is classified, this is as good a look we get; for instance, have u seen R77M seeker (confirmed) or Meteor or AIM260 seeker?
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I am seeing only 192 holes (less if you think some of these are actually connected on the ends of a slit), which is not much as far as T/R modules count goes imo.
I have seen at least one of those, yes.
That is a slotted waveguide array, those holes are not for sticking wires on T/R modules.
What we see is the back of the PL-15 non ESA seeker, the rectangular slots are the waveguide branches and the slots are the … slots.
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That would indeed be quite a weak ESA ngl.
I edited my last post to show a diagram of a standard slotted waveguide antenna, I think it is clear the PL-15E is using one. The branch waveguides are missing and all we see is the radiating slots with the area for the waveguides behind them.
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Slots are designed in a way to fit specific frequency and wavelength, and they are never designed as ‘round’.
