That looks like fun to sift through…
Though I have no idea what that second document is about
If you find anything to add from those that would be interesting.
I’m just going off of public stuff but I may consider an archives trip next time i’m down that way to see if there’s anything else I can find.
It’s clear from what I have found why the German pilots were quoted as saying they’d prefer PIRATE to ECRS.
I mean;
I hope for your sake, your cataloguing system is good.
Its a work in progress but it beats looking through docs individually.
As you can see;
May be a question out of left field, but is the the system on the stormer and ozelot similar to the pirate system in any way? As i always found it strange they were limited to 8km (on a good day) for planes.
They should not be limited to 8km
That’s a pretty bold claim given the Legion pod is just as, if not more modern than PIRATE. And aircraft in game already exist that could carry it
This isn’t a claim, this is entirely my opinion I have no source saying XYZ is better. I also used the word best for its subjectivity, as though Legion could beat PIRATE in range (who knows there are no figures but PIRATE is beating literally everything else we have figures for), PIRATE has its own advantages.
Legion is passive akin to PIRATE which is an advantage it will have over any other fighter bar Typhoon.
Irregardless of that, PIRATE is integrated into the airframe, Legion is also described as being ‘plug and play’ I have no proof but that generally suggests a lower level of systems fusion. Furthermore, as of the Director Operational Test and Evaluation report 2021 the pod had angle of attack limitations and could not be used within the entirety of the flight envelope. Thereby ‘gimping’ the aircrafts flight performance, PIRATE has no adverse effects/limitations.
Secondly Legion has virtually no performance figures available, so for the in-game portion that makes it pretty unlikely it will even be added due to lack of information, hence why for the F-22 portion I note ‘figures are released’. Meanwhile there is strong evidence suggesting at least 150-165km range for PIRATE vs fighter-sized targets and a minimum of 80-93km.
Thirdly, (and I may be reading too much into this), but Lockheed Martin seem to suggest it has vulnerabilities with range Lockheed Martin Are quoted here ‘In a press release, Lockheed Martin likens the range-finding ability to human binocular vision — in which two eyes, rather than one provide us with rapid depth perception and a 3D view of the world.’. This is the second mention I have found as to its range-accuracy from official representatives. Which essentially suggests pairing the systems alleviates issues PIRATE does not even have (publicly, who knows).
Whereas PIRATE whilst less precise than CAPTOR-M, has never had the suggestion put forward of using datalink between 2 Legion-equipped fighters to obtain precise firing solutions, as can be seen int that source.
Range-wise, this Superhornet development spokesman Captain Jason Denney is quoted as saying: ‘we’ve improved the optical design and the detector technology to get up with the 30 years of advancements, and then to provide some improved sensitivity and performance’. Which if anything implies that they worked more on its False-alarm rates.
He is also quoted as saying on its accuracy 'I can then tell generally which direction he’s going, but without knowing something about the range or something about the velocity, I gotta make some assumptions… ', here
Its not that Legion won’t have come a long way since Tomcat eyes but it is based on Tomcat Eyes (though that needed TCS to achieve its maximal performance which this naturally lacks) and most of the upgrades have been to reliability and software integration. Also to achieve precise, and long-range detection against bombers Tomcat Eyes required TCS, which Legion lacks.
Again, this isn’t an IRL comparison there are no figures for Legion, but its clear it isn’t quite finished and, based on available stuff on PIRATE and available stuff on IRST21/Legion, I’ll pretty confidently say I think PIRATE will be better.
(P.S pls no-one bite my head off this was a surface level flick)
How dare you voice your opinion, you shall be executed promptly. Always interesting learning about how complicated these system are.
The Eurofighter has 2 pesa jammers on the left wing, one foward and backwards. For elevation, there are two detectors in each wing
APA=Active Phased Array. Just explaining what the abbreviation means.
There are only 2 aesa radars
There are 3 in service, and 2 other prototypes.
ECRS MK.0, ECRS MK.1, ECRS MK.2 are in service, AMSAR (which i’m pretty sure is different to CAESAR) and CAESAR are prototypes/research arrays which were discarded.
“in service”
I say that in the loosest sense possible for simplicity’s sake, ECRS MK.1 and 2 are still being worked up.
Perhaps ‘slated to enter service’ would have been the better turn of phrase
2 AESA jammers, not radar types.
The left front wingtip is apparently empty
So the EF has ESM in both pods and ECM in the non decoy one.
Though natturaly theDecoy as ECM abilitys
so apparently BAE is adversitising double rails for BVRAAM missiles
Full video:
https://x.com/BAESystemsAir/status/1810660585287094301
We knew about them for a while