Nah, a bug report puts the the RBE2-AA as having an LPRF R50 of 5m^2 @ 180km
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/4xETLTWyByNc
The J/APG-1 has an LPRF R50 of 2.5m^2 @ 180km
With a 5m^2 RCS, the J/APG-1 should have an even longer range.
I don’t have anything to compare scan times
There were multiple times where the US got hands on with MELCO T/R modules in 1990, 1991 and 1993.
In the 1990 and 1991 case, Japan was very tight lipped about the module capabilities and it was all based on an engineering model of the radar and modules.
Indeed, the team’s principal conclusion, as
recounted in a later GAO report, was that “Japan’s technology [is]
far more competitive with similar U.S. radar technology than was
previously believed.”
Although the American team members had been quite impressed with what they saw on the first radar visit, they nonetheless had only learned about the general characteristics ofthe prototype engineering model of the APA radar.
Eventually, officials
scheduled a new trip for May 1991. Although this time the
Japanese permitted the U.S. engineers to view the facility that actually fabricated the GaAs MMIC chips for the FS-X radar T/R
modules, the GAO later noted that “Japanese officials declined to
answer many technical questions about radar test data.”
First, assessment ofthe potential value ofJapanese technology for bringing
down U.S. module costs required far more detailed data on the
performance of MELCO’s T/R modules and on the company’s dualuse automated manufacturing techniques, as well as on production
costs. However, the Japanese did not seem inclined to provide this
type of information.
So we know prior to receiving the T/R modules for testing, the US’s knowledge on MELCO T/R modules wasn’t very deep and Japan was outright trying to conceal information to protect their tech.
Now lets look at the hit piece where most of the slander of MELCO T/R modules comes from such as being worse than the APG-68. It almost all comes from DTIC ADA283773
In plain text they basically admit that they haven’t received any data on the MELCO T/R modules. ADA283773 was published in January of 1994 and the USAF released it’s data on the tests in June 1994, so there is no way for DTIC to have any of the data.
Yet they just freely spout this trash which people take as fact with 0 hard data.
Their sources on how the T/R modules are worse than those used on the APG-68 and APG-77.
- Jane’s
- Not very detailed information from the JDA on the much smaller and weaker by around 1kW per T/R module engineering model
- An interview with a Texas Instruments head
Using the actual 1994 report for Wright Labs shows that it kicks the shit out of the APG-68 and has a higher resolution than even the RBE2-AA. The only evidence of the J/APG-1 being “bad” is a report published before the US had even tested the J/APG-1 modules.
