Are you sure that’s a “late production” version? Looking at it, it seems to be F-4E 68-0345, placing it as an F-4E-37-MC. That is a really early model, compared to the one I suggested, and if you notice it lacks the “doghouse” antenna on the spine that was fitted ~1977, and also lacks the TISEO.
No F-4’s were actually produced from the factory with the one piece windscreen, as can be seen in the last McD produced F-4E (#5,057 which was a F-4E-67MC). You can see in this picture the standard framed multipiece windscreen. This F-4E went to Korea, btw.
The one piece windscreen was probably a one-off or limited modification done by the Missouri ANG, since they were close to the St. Louis plant where Phantoms were produced.
Although, for some reason, F4H-1 145310 had one during restoration work a few years back, although it looks like it was because the people who were restoring it simply couldn’t find an “original” windscreen. arcforums
Super late but even if TISEO is working properly you still won’t be able to BVR with it. Yes TISEO can tell the radar where to look but if the radar can’t differentiate between the ground and the target even if it’s being tracked by TISEO it won’t be able to guide a missle
That’s not how it works. The TISEO is providing the aspect information. from there, it is the flood horn, not the radar, that is providing guidance for the missile. From there it is the missiles own capacity to filter out ground clutter, not the host aircraft.
I thought the TISEO provided information for the radar to look at? And since the Sparrows are CW guided I don’t think the TISEO could guide it…?
Idk I’m not very well versed in how it works, it just doesn’t seem like it should because the AN/APG-120 is not a PD radar
The first part is correct yes, TISEO slaves radar, but the important part is it slaves the illuminator. And as warthogboy said, once illuminated it’s the missile that’s supposed to filter the returns from that point on
It’s not about the APG120 being non PD, it’s about its digital infrastructure and TISEO that allows it to decently circumvent some of it’s limitations.
The CW illuminator is a separate emitter mounted coaxially with the radar antenna. Normal operation has the radar will be pointing at the target and so the CW illuminator is as well. However, with a TISEO lock, and the aspect knob in the correct position, the radar antenna will slave to the TISEO and when an AIM-7 is launched, the CW emitter will activate.
