ESA radar scan patterns

Machinery of War Discussion
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1

Does anyone know how radar scan patterns are chosen in game?

Because it makes no sense for aircraft like the PoBit, F-2, F-18E, J-15 with fixed AESA radars to have limited search patterns, it should be perfectly possible to scan the entire 120°x120°.

The only radar which does scan it’s full ESA horizontal range is the irbis even the N011 which has a max of 90° horizontal only scans 80° for some reason

The Irbis and N011 are hybrid mech scan/PESA so having limited scan area makes sense while fully scanning the ESA area, but all other aircraft which I named have fixed AESA radars which should be able to scan the entire area.

I see no reason why these aircraft should be limited to just half of the possible search area, a 140°x30 would be a lot more useful than a 30°x15° on an AESA radar.

2

Irbis is also very limited to 10° in vertical search which again makes no sense to me when others get 30° vertical.

3

bc the Irbis got the 10° from the Bars which it is related to

all other ESA radars that dont have any sources for their scan patterns are getting the 30° vertical scan zones

4

I see for the vertical , but the horizontal range makes no sense regardless, in what world would anyone use a 30x15 for an AESA instead of a 140x30.

Is the N011 also limited to 80° search horizontal while it says 90°?

5

in game it makes the search refresh way faster if you have a smaller area, if you have TWS mode on it also limits the targets it can start tracking to the ones in that search window (so that your TWS doesn’t suddenly start tracking something 80 deg to your side when you want to track something you know is in front of you).

Don’t know for the game but IRL it also intensifies the beams and make the radars able to detect smaller targets.

6

Doesn´t matter for aesa really

7

the N011 is a gimbaled ESA it cant scan the whole area without the mechanical gimbal

8

I know that’s what i said, but the ESA search area is 90° but it has no 90° search area.

9

Yup, it automatically refreshes the search every couple milliseconds even outside the search are, by steering a beam in between searches

10

I use the smallest scan area all the time, because number one issue with most ESA radars is that you lose all trackfiles once you go notching, so I put the scan zone to the smallest area and push the zone all the way to on side using manual control. This ensures me that I pick up the tracks again the fastest when reengaging, instead of wasting time scanning an area that is either empty or I have no interest in.

For something like the CAPTOR-E though, which doesn’t really have this issue as much, no major point yeah. But I believe the CAPTOR-E actually does get a full 200° azimuth scan pattern, based on promotional footage I think.