Mysterre
Banned Idiot
Re: Japanese Defence Minister: Helicopter & DDG "locked on" by Chinese Frigates' Ra
This is the only jewel of information that I gleaned from that otherwise idiotic article. How did they get something as specific as "3,953 tons"?
There are such things as 'target quality tracks' meaning the position of the target is known with enough certainty and precision that a missile can be guided into it. Accuracy of tracks is variable depending on the radar and the target's speed and RCS. Also, some radars can only provide range and azimuth ("2D radar"), while other can provide range, azimuth and elevation ("3D radar"). Every ESA is 3D, while OTH radars are usually 2D only. Also, an FCR for SARH missiles works by constantly bouncing a radar beam off the target that the missile uses to home in on. This is known as "painting the target". This is track mode and is distinct from scan mode which is when a radar sweeps the entire sky looking for targets without pinpointing any specific one. Phased array radars can do both; this is known as "track while scan". PESA's do this by rapidly alternating their single beams between tracking one or more targets and scanning the rest of the sky. AESA's do this by delegating some elements to tracking and some elements to scanning, resulting in multiple radar beams from the same panel. Constantly painting a target and maintaining a target quality track good enough to shoot with is obviously considered a more threatening way to irradiate someone, since the next step after that is the actual firing of your missile into that target. I have no doubt the Japanese ship did not actually feel truly threatened, but it is as insulting and annoying as having someone point a loaded gun at you, even if you are confident they will not actually shoot you.
