litening G4 (upgraded III) is just a much newer system. newer sensor, newer tech, etc. PIRATE in comparison it just outdated.
a modern dedicated IRST could maybe still ouperform it but looking at the F-35s, the trend is really a fully integrated system…
but tbh i dont know what the US is doing here with those external pods. maybe they feel like they need those on some platforms…
it cant look up like in a dogfight but the tpod sticks out quite far from the fuselage and is angled slightly down so it can look up enough at longer distances
Ive run across some article talking about its development/ supposed features and apparently it should do something similar to PESA.
When scanning and lets say your priority target is 30° on your left. It should momentarily jump on that target whenever its on 30° left, no matter the bar, it should quickly rotate, get info and continue in scan. This alone should point towards very quick scan rate.
I wonder if this will be added. But if the scan will be speed of tornado, not that its needed to be fair.
A youngster’s dreams about how many amraams a Typhoon can carry. He saw a double pylon for amraams in one of the presentation videos and got overexcited about it.