Radar Missiles how to

[Dinonoms]

Hey Folks,

So i finally managed to unlock my first Radar missile (AIM-7E-2 Sparrow) on the Phantom FG.1 but i have no real clue how they Work.

I derped around in the control settings and manage to figure out how to Radar Lock Things (i think at least) but i have No clue how to properly Lock with the Missiles.

I only manage to lock something below 6 km but the missile ist suppose to have a lock range of 37 km.

[karabaş 🐕‍🦺]

not a top tier radar missile user but i had a fun experience with FGR.2 and sparrow 2s and skyflashes are effective around 4-8km rather than 10+

idk if there are tricks to know about but i binded radar lock to my right click and all i did was right clicking then sending the missile, break off lightly then i got 3 kills every game

[OtherACTION]

Radar lock onto the plane, similar to tracking a plane using a SPAA with radar & tracking. Once you have them locked on, you will be able to launch the missile.

[Dinonoms]

Originally posted by OtherACTION:

Radar lock onto the plane, similar to tracking a plane using a SPAA with radar & tracking. Once you have them locked on, you will be able to launch the missile.

So if i get you correctly the missile seeker I can activate like I usally do with IR missiles is not required then? Because as mentioned I can get a radar lock within the range of my Planes Radar but I the missiles itself can only lock on within 6 to 7 km instead of the 37km according to the tool tip.

[Schublade]

AIM - 7 is a SARH missile - Semi Active Radar Homing, which means the seeker head of the missile has no active emmitter - only a receiver. So you need the radar lock of your aircraft's radar for it being able to to paint the target with radar energy for the missile to see the target. Imagine a flashlight in the dark and whatever reflects and shines back at you - you can see. In the same way the missile can follow a target.

That means two things that make the target most visible - aspect angle and cross section. Just as with your eyes, a MiG-21 gives a tiny spot to recognize if it's coming right at you or is heading away from you but if a plane crosses your path and is banking it's visual and radar cross section becomes huge.
Ditto for larger aircraft - they make larger radar cross section.

Therefore everytime you see numbers for radar and detection ranges consider that without quoting size of target and/or cross section you don't have a reliable number.

Lastly everything that comes between your radar beam, a cone of a few degrees, but covering an area as large as a football field at a certain distance, everything that gives a brighter reflection than your target be it a cloud of chaff or the friggin fellow on your team that is pulling infront of you will become the target for the missile.

So don't shoot if that can happen or you will commit fratricide.

[DrunkenTee]

If you look at your Radar, when you try to lock something, you dont have the full range. It wont give you same (up to 150+km) Range but instead the Radar will try to lock whatever it sees within its stated Range, I think very most go up to 19km. Thats why you cant lock anything further than that.

You do have the options to lock targets beyond that Range when you move your Radar (extra keybinds) and then manually pick a target that is further away, just watch any TWS tutorial for that, it works with plenty other Aircraft as well (just outside TWS mode).

Also since nobody mentioned it yet. Radars have many different modes across WarThunder.

You have your basic Search, which sucks in every condition unless it only sees the sky.

Search PD (which I believe all UK Radars should have by default) which basically removes Ground Clutter, so you can now even lock people that arent just up in the sky.

You have HDN modes which are Head-On, self-explanatory.. only scans for something coming at you really fast.

TWS is Track-while-Scan, it has a different monitor display than other Radars which makes it more comfortable to see targets on it (they aint just a tiny flat line) and as it says, you can still Scan infront of you while Tracking a target, only works at peak with Aim-54 because then it can "lock" them for a launch without giving them a warning, but its still a great thing to have nonetheless.

ACQ is Acquiring, self-explanatory.

Just a few I can remember from the top of my head right now, you should definitely look them up more, since there is more to it than just my basic explanation.

edit: Additionally, the E2 is a dogfight Sparrow which isnt even meant for such large ranges, but as far as I remember the FG.1 doesnt have the E2, only the E and the british Skyflash. Perhaps you meant the normal Aim-7E?

[Dinonoms]

Originally posted by Schublade:

AIM - 7 is a SARH missile - Semi Active Radar Homing, which means the seeker head of the missile has no active emmitter - only a receiver. So you need the radar lock of your aircraft's radar for it being able to to paint the target with radar energy for the missile to see the target. Imagine a flashlight in the dark and whatever reflects and shines back at you - you can see. In the same way the missile can follow a target.

That means two things that make the target most visible - aspect angle and cross section. Just as with your eyes, a MiG-21 gives a tiny spot to recognize if it's coming right at you or is heading away from you but if a plane crosses your path and is banking it's visual and radar cross section becomes huge.
Ditto for larger aircraft - they make larger radar cross section.

Therefore everytime you see numbers for radar and detection ranges consider that without quoting size of target and/or cross section you don't have a reliable number.

Lastly everything that comes between your radar beam, a cone of a few degrees, but covering an area as large as a football field at a certain distance, everything that gives a brighter reflection than your target be it a cloud of chaff or the friggin fellow on your team that is pulling infront of you will become the target for the missile.

So don't shoot if that can happen or you will commit fratricide.

Thank you very much. But I think you missed my problem... I know how they Work on a technical Level.

To put it more bluntly... Which Buttons do I need to press to have my missiles lock on beyond 7 km i.e. the function I need to use in regards to the control settings.

[DrunkenTee]

What I personally always do because its just the best way:

Go into weapon selection mode with "Switch secondary weapons" that gives you the full choice of what missile or bombs to use right now if you have more than 1 option carried.

RMB is to fire "Secondary weapons" so missiles, bombs, rockets and LMB "Fire primary weapons" will still fire your main gun.

"Switch between Radar and IRST" is important if you have Russian planes that have IR Tracker, so you can scan, lock and track heat.

"Horizontal Radar/IRST target cue control axis" to move your radar horizontally on the Monitor.

"Vertical Radar/IRST target cue control axis" for vertical.

Ignore the tilt option, utter garbage and useless at the moment since you have to continously rearrange it.


Once you found a target and moved your Radar above the target, do "Lock Radar/IRST on Target"

Get a good lock (above 75% of the red circle, hard to see cuz its a second line), click and boom