Jimmy

For the most part.

gunnut

Sir, if you don't mind elaborating a little, how does the Sidewinder slave to onboard radar?

Is it possible to develop this kind of slaving mechanism to launch AIM-9 from internal weapon bays of the F-22 and F-35 without extending the missile into the air stream?

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Feanor

What are the shortcomings, in terms of avionics, on the base Su-30M?

wabpilot

Not a problem at all. The original AIM-9 and even the AIM-9B had a simple heat seeker. It looked for the hottest source of light in a fairly narrow cone and flew toward it. To the extent you could aim the AIM-9 it was done by pointing the entire airplane towards a particular target and waiting until the missile'ss seeker head locked on. Hopefully, if the sun wasn't in the way, the 'winder would fly true to the target and explode. Sometimes, the sun distracted the 'winder and it would fly off toward outer space, never to be heard from again.

First we introduced a cooling circuit to super cool the seeker head so that it would be more discriminatory with its target selection. That helped. But, in later marks, the seeker could actually be connected to the AWG-9 or AWG-10 to get a directional cue. While still on the launch rail, I might add. This directional cue was meant to tell the missile to ignore heat sources elsewhere and concentrate in one direction. All of a sudden the AIM-9 was a very reliable weapon!

Jump forward to the present and we now have the AIM-9X which can be cued from a helmet mounted sight. That allows a significant off axis shot to be made. Now, the aviator or NFO can look at the target, the AIM-9X will slew its seeker to the direction too and hopefully see the same target. Once the crew and the AIM-9X are in agreement, launch can happen.

In theory, an AIM-9X could be launched blind, with just on board cueing. But, that's not the way the thing is designed. The interlocks require the seeker to be locked on to a target before launch. As the AIM-9X's seeker is strictly heat sensitive, putting it in a bay would permanently prevent the interlocks from releasing the weapon. We did have a dual guidance version of the AIM-9 that was a semi-active radar homer/heat seaker. That missile could be launched with strictly radar control. Thus, I say that a sidewinder could in theory be designed to launch with radar control. It is probably not a necessity though as the AMRAAM can be launched from a bay under the semi-active or RF mode.

wabpilot

Once you insulted all who have served by defending their country by alleging it was a game, you ceased to discuss anything seriously and permanently marked yourself as a waste of bandwidth

You have already stopped posting anything useful.

HistoricalDavid

wabpilot, can you spare any details about how the -9X's seeker works vs older versions? As I understand it, it is a infrared imaging seeker, and tracks the outline of the target aircraft as opposed to simply the hottest part of its vision. This would require some extremely advanced outline-recognition software - imagine attacking in a dive, with the ground providing its own thermal texture as a background against the aircraft's outline. Or am I getting it wrong? Cheers.

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MarquezRazor

Nice spin you put on my words.
At least I didnt think that AA-10 doesnt use radar.

Anyway this is going on too far now.Pity that your fragile ego got bruised when you got corrected.You had all my respect mainly for 3 reasons.You are 1.way senior.2.member of the armed force 3.an aviator.There is no questioning your experience but there are some things people may know better than you.Particularly newer stuff.Once your ego accepts that, no problem.Plus your posts sound like America all good Russia all bad type.Get out of the cold war mentality.Across whole lot of field Russia competes technologically with the US today fair and square.So better get off your high horse.

Have the last word if you wish.

Jimmy

I'm not sure how much of this conversation would be open source and I really dont want to "talk around" things.

GGTharos

You have it wrong.

The AIM-9X tracks the brightest, largest blob of pixels, together with some additional filters (motion tracking etc); there are films of seeker footage on youtube.

The ground is almost always colder or at least farther away, so the aircraft will almost always be the brightest collection of pixels.

That's just the very basics of it all as I understand it.

Zinja

Wabpilot:

Ok, if im uderstanding right, the F-22 will be able to see other planes using AN/APG-77 before the enemy's planes are able to see it - fair and fine. But then it uses AN/ALR-94 for it's radar lock to launch the amraam, how is this an advantage for the raptor? I am asking this because it seems whilst the raptor will have seen the enemy first at 250m it wont be able to do a thing until its about 150m to launch, by which then the enemy a/c can detect the f22 (ignoring the f22 stealth frame) and equally retaliate.

What does the f22 use anywhere to 'launch' and midiuma range? Does it use the AN/APG-77 to guide the missile away so that the missile can be launched well before the enemy knows whats coming or, does it use AN/ALR-94 so that the missile is launched only with the 150m range (which i think will be of no added advantage as explained in the first paragraph). Or (for all i know), once the f-22 is able to see enemy a/c the amraam is release and finds its way to the target on its own?

Help Wabpilot

wabpilot

Sorry, I cannot. What I know is classified and from the earliest development periods of the AIM-9X, so it may not be accurate anyway.

wabpilot

The F-22, or any western fighter for that matter, will detect a Russian emitter long before the Russian can detect us. That allows the F-22, to move out of the Su's cone of detection. No fighter radar has a 360 degree sweep. It's usually between 60 and 90 degrees. The smaller the cone, the longer the range. We just move to the flanks or behind. Then once in range, usually 25 nautical miles or so, we launch from a blind spot. Sure, our radar sets off his RWR, but we lock up faster and in his blind spot. With the AIM-120, we can even shut down the aircraft radar as it has a fully active mode. The Su is then in the position of having to turn and fight, or flee. If he turns and fights, he is facing an opponent with the advantage of having shot first and having better position. Fight over before it really begins. The real advantage of stealth is it allows the F-22 to get closer for its shot and a much shorter run time for the missile.

Zinja

That certainly does help, thanks!

HistoricalDavid

That clashes with what I've heard about its infrared imaging capability.

'Oops'.

avon1944

No, the seeker head for the Sidewinder-9X is an 'imaging' infra-red seeker (I²R). It doesn't look for a blob but, rather an infra-red image that to us looks like a negative for a black and white photo. The "9X" has in its memory all aspects of any potential opponent. By detecting the image, then comparing it to the images in its memory looking for certain features, it recognizes the aircraft. Then rotating the image in its memory and compares it to the image being detected until the two coincide. That gives the computer the "true aspect" of the target to the position of the missile at that time. The computer then selects the appropriate algorithm for the most efficient course for a successful intercept.

The best websites for the "-9X" were discontinued once the production contract was awarded. Some contained great videos of the missile's capability.

You Tube Video "AIM-9x SIDEWINDER Trial" [Look up -AIM-9X]
YouTube - AIM-9x SIDEWINDER Trial

Adrian