RWR = Radar Warning Reciever.
IRIS-T = InfraRed Imaging System Tail/Thrust vector-controlled
IR-missiles do not give Radar warnings :)
If the planes has a MAWS (Missile Approach Warning System) however that reacts to IR signatures that would still trigger and send beeps.
So, when I play with the same aircraft in air battles and I am presented with an IR-guided Fox2 missile, how does the RWR warn me when it is launched? After all, both the IRIS-T and the Fox2 missiles are IR-guided, or do they have different types of IR guidance?
Then I always launch Fox 2 missiles in HMS mode without radar lock and almost every plane in the game does not have MAWS. So how does the enemy know that I launched this missile and fire chaff/flare?
It doesn’t.
What you are likely getting in that moment is the enemies radar that has a lock on you and not the missile. Many top tier IR-missiles can aim their seeker based on a Radar track from the aircraft to be able to shoot IR missiles at targets not directly in front of the aircraft.
You can start a replay and go into sensor mode to see what types of seekers and radars are looking at your plane to better understand things :)
Freelook. I have bound “wasd” for controlling the aircraft and then use the mouse to look behind me to see if there is a missile coming at me :)
So, based on what you said, if I turn off my radar and manually lock and fire my Fox 2 missile at the enemy, and the enemy plane does not have a MAWS system, it will not be aware of this unless it turns its head back and looks, do I understand correctly?
Correct.
Because in my aircraft I use HMS PD mode, that is, I use the head radar but without radar lock, I lock and fire my missile and the enemy knows about it. So, if I turn off my radar and lock and fire, the enemy should not know about it. Did I understand correctly?
I understand correctly, okay, thank you :) By the way, when will gripen e be added to the game :D
If you do not lock the HMS then there shouldn’t be a warning then either.
No idea, Game Masters do not handle development and have no insight into it either.
We only handle in-game chat and name bans :)
*Though even TWS will give a degree of warning as well (too many times i’ve seen someone be sneaky, only to forget to turn their radar off and I knew exactly where they were as a result)
Here comes the part I don’t understand, then I fire my missile without locking the HMS, but every enemy somehow knows about this. I don’t think there are that many players looking behind in the game, but I don’t know :D
Yep, TWS gives a search ping but no lock indication :)
At top tier most do actually.
If you go into the server replay you can check the match from the enemy players point of view as well ^^
If you’ve been “spotted” then a red mark will appear on the minimap in ARB. This alone is enough to give a lot of players warning. But ARB requires exceptionally good situational awarness and most players will be constantly scanning the space around them. Tunnel vision is your worst enemy.
Also, if you are in the Gripen C, a good chunk of the aircraft you are facing have MAWS.
By the way, I’ll change the subject, but although the AIM-120C-5 missile looks better than the AIM-120B on paper, I noticed that its deviation rate is much higher than the 120B. I fire the C missile, and I’m in a position to hit it, but somehow the missile misses the enemy or deviates, but when I do the same with the B missile, I hit the enemy much more easily. Is there a specific reason for this? Normally, the C missile is much better than the B missile on paper.
Yes, I know there are no other aircraft with MAWS systems other than those, but while we’re on the subject of being seen, enemy aircraft are detected very late in the last few updates, even though I have an Ace level crew and a friend with me. For example, there are 7-8 km between me and 30 km, and the weather is clear, and the enemy is flying above me, fires its missile, and I’m still not detected. I die, and then it’s detected. This has started happening a lot lately. Is there a solution or is this problem known (if it counts as a problem)? This hasn’t happened before.
Not that I am aware, though the spotting system in War Thunder has always been dodgy. Needs an overhaul
The CS/SA5 and IRIS-T SLM use IR guided missiles datalinked to the systems radar, they aren’t like the Pantsir/VT-1/Tor systems which are guided via radio beam and will trigger a launch warning on your RWR. Most of them are launched under Track While Scan, you will get an RWR return (providing your RWR can detect the Search band it’s using), but it will just a be a single beep rather than a continuous tone like a radar tracking you or a launch warning from a guidance beam.
There seem to be a bunch of misconceptions around the IRIS-T missile.
So this is how the missile actually works in real life (make of it what you will):
This missile - the A2A variant like the SL variants - has a smart bicolor infra-red imaging warhead combined with an active K-band radar proximity fuse which is also used for communication via digital datalink.
So this missile receives (or to be precise it ‘can receive’) sporadic updates via K-band radar signals, and it also uses the K-band radar for the ’ active proximity fuse’.
In other words:
This missile is not just a ‘heat seeking missile’ (to be precise it’s not just an ‘infra red imaging missile with smart target recognition and verification’) and it is also not a ‘radar guided missile’ either, but it can be guided via datalink using K-band radar for digital communication.
So what does all this mean with respect to radar warner systems and missile approach warner systems?
But a few things can be stipulated:
Whatever these radars (probably networked and cooperating and located at several locations) that are tracking the missile’s target do and how each of their radar signals may change as they ‘lock on’ and increase precision is of course also all highly classified.
So whatever that may mean for each of the target’s specific actual real world radar warner systems and how it may or may not be able to detect a ‘radar lock’ is pretty much speculation at this point and with the (extremely sparse to nonexistent) level of publicly available information.
It will all depend on the specific type and model of radar warner system installed on an aircraft (or ground based or naval or whatever other unit) as well as the specific system’s (smart digital signal processing) capabilities.
I know the Eurofighter Typhoon for example has active millimeter-wave radar as one part of the Praetorian/ EuroDass defense suite, this active radar system can (more or less effectively) detect approaching objects including missiles that do not actively emit any radar themselves.
Another somewhat interesting feature around the IRIS-T missile that many people do not know, is that German Eurofighter Typhoons commonly do NOT have on bord (Pirate) IRST systems the way British and Spanish Eurofighters carry them. (As far as I know Germany currently only has a couple of the two seater Variant equipped with PIRATE IRST for training and testing purposes).
Instead (almost all of) the German Typhoons use the IRIS-T missile’s own warhead as Infra-Red-Search-and Track (IRST) system.
This means once the last IRIS-T missile is fired the German Typhoon will then be ‘blind’ in infra red (other than night-vision goggles pilots may wear).
By the way as a side note, what this also tells you the German Typhoons having “Raptor salad” for lunch in the famous Red Flag exercise must have carried at least one IRIS-T missile under their wings (at a minimum) in order for them to be able to lock on to the F-22, and they could certainly NOT have flown ‘clean’ without any missile as it is so often published.
Also know that the commonly published performance numbers for the Eurofighter Typhoon are in fact usually based on the Tranche 1 Typhoons in interceptor configuration armed with 6 missiles, 4 of which they carry on recessed low drag stations on the underside of the fuselage, 2 of which they carry under the wings.
This is probably because the Tranche 1 interceptor configuration is what the original government contracts were based around, and these data were therefore more or less publicly discussed by politicians, administrators and government employees in those countries’ national parliaments.
So many online arguments and discussions around the Typhoons performance stats compared to other jets carrying their weapons internally, like the F-22 or F-35 do, are usually flawed in the sense that (unlike the commonly discussed numbers for US made F-16s and F-18s) the Typhoons commonly published numbers are for an armed Typhoon jet carrying 6 missiles but no external fuel tanks (a loadout which only produces little more drag than a ‘clean’ and unarmed Typhoon jet does).