Chinese Air-To-Air missiles, History, Performance & Discussion

[MiG_23M]

To which I assumed there was 1x T/R module per antenna, and there are quite a few antenna.

Another look at the AAM-4B seeker seems to show that the holes around the plate and on the stand are phillips screw sized, which to me indicates it is a missile sized seeker and not some obnoxiously large and pointless test device.

Spoiler

The PL-15E seeker by comparison has between 400 and 600 square antenna packed into those modules. Feel free to try and count yourself, of course, some are missing.

Spoiler

To break this down further so others can see what I am talking about:

Here you can see one of those square T/R module packs broken down. There is the case, the individual T/R modules, and the SMP connectors. I will post the image of the wreckage below which also has the SMP connectors visible where the antenna’ broke off.

Here are the packs that is what the exploded view above is depicting:

Here it all is together with the antenna squares on top:

And here is the complete thing on a test rig:

Images sourced from this site

[141_allen]

Just a question, the purple structure or what ever colour it originally was, it wouldn’t exist in the actual missile right?
Also regarding the screws, it definitely isn’t an ‘actual’ AAM4B then cause these are not present and this is likely just a mock up to fit the seeker on.
Another thing just to raise is if this seeker is actual missile sized it would mean the seeker is a lot smaller than actual 203 mm diameter, which would make, say 10mm^2 T/R modules? That just seems near impossible from EE point of view.

[MiG_23M]

Why would the purple not be present?

Why would it not be an “actual” AAM4B seeker? Your arguments aren’t totally justified ATM imo.

Obviously the AAM-4B seeker structure being shown isn’t production and has some kind of horn on it for whatever reason