Re: New JF-17/FC-1 thread
Actually, radar could quite easely have trouble telling, say, a j7 from j10, *at a certain distance*. So, while detection of a target can be made at, say, 500 km away, positive identification would not happen till 100, 200 km or whatever other value. One could easely put radar signal enhancers on planes with exact purpose of making them have as similar RCS as possible. To combat that, radar has to have great resolution, to make up synthetic images of the target. Longer wave radars, like those on an AWACS, are bad for that role. While shorter wave radars are better, they can still use their high resolution modes at shorter range than their max radar range.
Stealth kills are possible from slightly longer ranges than gun range, IR missiles should have no problem locking on from several kms away, more so from the rear. Of course, thats a moot point, as one would still be dead before reaching such ranges.