I'll paste myself from another topic.
From what I gathered, the limit of how many missiles can an illuminator guide is purely arbitrary. In some literature one can read about two missiles per illuminator, sometimes it even states two targets are illuminated by one illuminator while guiding two missiles. But nowhere did i find a description of mechanics. People who claim to be in the know have told me (but i've no way of verifying that) it really boils down to this (and it makes sense to me): Every mechanically steered illuminator has a single beam for terminal interception. It is fairy focused, but over long distances (10-20 km) it spreads out enough that it is perfectly possible for that beam to illuminate two or even more incoming targets.
Some issues arise: Since those illuminator beams are continuous wave illumination, there is really no data about distance, range, heading itd. All that isn't so important anymore because we're talking about last few seconds of interception and one assumes distances are already quite small. If two targets are one next to another, missile has to know how to pick one target over another. If one target is closer than the other, then i *assume* the amount of emission that gets picked up by the missile can be interpreted in such a way that missile can pick the closer or farther targer.
Real issue is this: if two missiles are flying towards two targets and there is just one illuminator that paints both targets: how do those missiles know which one is supposed to intercept which target? One obvious solution is continued assistance by ship's other systems. Perhaps SPY radar can continue sending updates and keep each missile on path to each target. But that sort of defeats the whole purpose of guidance radar/illuminator radar combo.
I was told in reality the two targets per illuminator either isn't really used or isn't counted on OR it is used in specific situations where targets are sequential, not parallel. Meaning One target is for example 20 km from ship, other target is more or less in the same line and illuminator doesn't have to move, but is behind it, 25 km from the ship. Two (or more) missiles are fired, also sequentially. Then if the first missile brings down the first target, the illuminator just goes on with its job, the second missile just goes on flying and tries to down the second target.
While that mechanic doesn't seem terribly useful, it can be useful for older types of AAW systems where the number of midcourse update channels is small or when there is so many targets that even newer systems would welcome the relief and instead of them guiding the missiles in midcourse, the illuminator is used to, in effect, guide the second missile to second target. Of course, all this makes sense in very specific situations where distances between targets are just right and there's not much wastage time wise.
But, like I said, one really can't count on two or more targets being illuminated by a single beam. Enemies will perhaps make the attacks so it comes from sufficienly different angles or group them so the illuminator will have a hard time picking the right one. For all intents and purposes, burkes are often meant to really do target just three targets per cycle.
From what I gathered, the limit of how many missiles can an illuminator guide is purely arbitrary. In some literature one can read about two missiles per illuminator, sometimes it even states two targets are illuminated by one illuminator while guiding two missiles. But nowhere did i find a description of mechanics. People who claim to be in the know have told me (but i've no way of verifying that) it really boils down to this (and it makes sense to me): Every mechanically steered illuminator has a single beam for terminal interception. It is fairy focused, but over long distances (10-20 km) it spreads out enough that it is perfectly possible for that beam to illuminate two or even more incoming targets.
Some issues arise: Since those illuminator beams are continuous wave illumination, there is really no data about distance, range, heading itd. All that isn't so important anymore because we're talking about last few seconds of interception and one assumes distances are already quite small. If two targets are one next to another, missile has to know how to pick one target over another. If one target is closer than the other, then i *assume* the amount of emission that gets picked up by the missile can be interpreted in such a way that missile can pick the closer or farther targer.
Real issue is this: if two missiles are flying towards two targets and there is just one illuminator that paints both targets: how do those missiles know which one is supposed to intercept which target? One obvious solution is continued assistance by ship's other systems. Perhaps SPY radar can continue sending updates and keep each missile on path to each target. But that sort of defeats the whole purpose of guidance radar/illuminator radar combo.
I was told in reality the two targets per illuminator either isn't really used or isn't counted on OR it is used in specific situations where targets are sequential, not parallel. Meaning One target is for example 20 km from ship, other target is more or less in the same line and illuminator doesn't have to move, but is behind it, 25 km from the ship. Two (or more) missiles are fired, also sequentially. Then if the first missile brings down the first target, the illuminator just goes on with its job, the second missile just goes on flying and tries to down the second target.
While that mechanic doesn't seem terribly useful, it can be useful for older types of AAW systems where the number of midcourse update channels is small or when there is so many targets that even newer systems would welcome the relief and instead of them guiding the missiles in midcourse, the illuminator is used to, in effect, guide the second missile to second target. Of course, all this makes sense in very specific situations where distances between targets are just right and there's not much wastage time wise.
But, like I said, one really can't count on two or more targets being illuminated by a single beam. Enemies will perhaps make the attacks so it comes from sufficienly different angles or group them so the illuminator will have a hard time picking the right one. For all intents and purposes, burkes are often meant to really do target just three targets per cycle.
in period from 1981 to 1984, 36 Perrys were built and comissioned, on average 9 per year. I don't know when that sort of production peak will be surpassed anywhere in the world again, considering it is a 4000 ton vessel.