Quote:
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"Paul fired up the radar .. and put it into ground mapping mode ... the resolution on this Block 50 aircraft which had flown straight from the Iraq conflict ... was acceptable ... given the generation of the radar ... far inferior, though, to what I had seen on the F-18 F Super Hornet last year. There were (understandably) blindspots when we flew over a few hillocks. I was also shown the moving ground target attack mode ... where we locked on to what I was told were a few trucks ... the resolution of the radar was too poor for me to see what we had locked onto ... "
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I don't know about the Russians, but I can guarantee you that in an American plane, airshow incentive rides are
never offered with combat-coded AC.
If this Viper came from Iraq, it would have had an airshow tape loaded for the demo rides. There are declass versions of the software that are used for these kind of events.
The APG-68(v)9 has 2 ft. resolution in SAR ground imaging mode. What the author saw was
not what a Viper driver sees in combat.