– Seeker cueing by radar, helmet mounted
display, infrared search and track device,
missile approach warner and data link
Diehl saying that the SLM has a “newly added” datalink doesnt explicitly mean that the A2A doesnt have one. SLM is a whole new system so it wouldn’t surprise me if the launchers of the SLS just lacked the datalink and its a new addition to the launchers or TOC.
also i wrote “it was designed to receive targeting data via datalink, such as MIDS” which, even if there’s no datalink between aircraft and missile, is still correct.
Their (and by extension my) wording is very vague on purpose lol
The same brochure also says “Predictive flight path tracking and lock-on-after-launch features enable the missile to engage targets in the rear hemisphere as well.”
You wouldnt need predictive flight path tracking if the target position could be updated with datalink after launch
Modern IIR seekers can easily detect flares based on their size, shape and rate changes. It really doesnt matter if they are large caliber or small, burn hotter or colder, they all get rejected
There are flares that can defend against IIR seekers in specific circumstances. Instead of being a single hot point, they consist of a chaff like material that burns up when exposed to air, leading to large hot cloud that can obscure the target and disrupt the tracking, but only in a rear chase scenario
Its not guaranteed though.
With predictive flight path you can generally increase the pK in case the target gets obscured by clouds, buildings, trees, telephone poles, etc.
It would be possible to reach the same LOAL capabilities by having the aircraft predict the flight path and just giving the missile a different coordinate to fly to.
My name? Mate, the last time I was there was in December, and only talked about the R-74 (and IRIS-T as a sidenote), so I dunno what kind of information you have or where from, that I allegedly attend to that place frequently when I don’t, do I have a doppelganger I’ve no knowledge of?
so turns out that it doesnt have an in-flight datalink
however
development of a block 2/version 2/whateverthehellitscalled 2 is supposed to begin this year and thats going to add a datalink and replace obsolete components and even a new seeker
Just like ARH without DL. Missile gets fed information about target current heading speed Etc, and based on that it goes on intercept path. Also remember that IRIS-T is considered rather short range missile, so DL is not that important, as there is a limited amount of deviations that can happen.
ig it either gets the last known location or a predicted location of the target and the seeker looks in that direction
its got a 90° gimbal limit so it would see the target rather quickly
new/better tech ig. iterations always work like that
also
Block 2 is NOT FCAAM. thats a different venture
I haven’t seen any physical model of the datalink receiver on the IRIS-T, which would be needed for it to have datalink, so that’s true. Any future iteration would need this antenna.
Here you can see MICA’s datalink receiver
MBDA stating it has rear receiver
Here’s AIM-120A, you can see that the datalink receiver is in the tail of the missile.
