How do you notch sparrows?

[Desperadoscres]

I dont know it's the only missile I have trouble dodging
Like R24ER feel way easier to dodge maybe it's just me

[Jaes]

That's because R-24s are easier to defeat due to the radar system that's present on the launch aircraft that carry those missiles.

Sorry, there's a lot of information to go over here so there won't be a TL;DR.

When we're discussing defending against Fox 1 missiles, the primary thing we need to be worried about is the radar guiding that missile. The most important thing to keep in mind about the missile is how quickly they accelerate off the rail of a launch aircraft as it gives you an idea of how to manage your distance between you and your attacker.

The AIM-7E/E-2 for instance has a higher initial velocity than the AIM-7F/M Sparrows so they will close on you quicker than latter missiles when we're talking about distances around 5-7km so they'll give you less time to defend by a second or two. While this may not seem like much, it makes a huge difference.

However, because the AIM-7E series has a very short amount of burn time for their fuel, they will lose energy very quickly and won't regain it if you force them to turn against you or if you "Go Cold" (go into rear-aspect) from your attacker. Pros and Cons to Going Cold, but it's a good "Save your bacon" tactic.

In the current top tier environment, it can be difficult to defend against an attacker launching a Sparrow because there's multiple aircraft using different radar systems involved with defeating that Sparrow.

First, you need to identify what's shooting at you, and do so quickly. If your RWR can't identify what's locking you up, it's gonna be that much harder to defend, and certain RWR systems won't even accurately display whether you're in the correct "Notch" position to begin with. That's going to be a challenge for you to figure out. What I'll primarily go over here are the common US aircraft you're going to run into and how to defeat their radar.

F-4J/S:

The first US Pulse-Doppler capable radar airborne "screw that flying object" interceptor. Using the AN/APG-59 radar system, credited as being the first radar system to include PD capabilities. Since it's the first of its kind, it also has operating quirks that are pretty straight forward to exploit.

Its biggest weakness is that it cannot change its Radar mode while locked. It can only lock in PD or SRC. If you break its lock, the operator needs to take time to switch back to the appropriate mode to re-engage lock, which depending on the distances involved, will often cause the Sparrow to continue flying past its intended target and make it too late to re-engage.

In order to reliable defeat the radar, put your nose 90 degrees in relation to the F-4J/S's radar beam hitting you, hold that position for three seconds, deploy chaff while doing so, and the lock will break. The Chaff is to make a hard re-engagement process even harder for your attacker, and it'll also make it easier to defeat the radar if it's in SRC mode and not PD mode.

If you're within 5km of the missile shot, you will not have enough time to successfully Notch the radar in most circumstances (unless your attacker is going really slow). Turning away from the attacker is a very reliable defense here.

F-14A/B:

The F-14 Tomcat is the host of the AWG-9 Radar array. This radar array is really what makes the Tomcat "4th Gen" and introduced a new era of combat aviation. The AWG-9 is very good at finding targets at long distances, keeping track of them, and destroying whatever target it does not like in its airspace at long ranges thanks to a combination of AIM-54s and Sparrows.

In order to have those kind of capabilities, the AWG-9 has highly exploitable weakness. It's extremely vulnerable to Notch tactics. A radar lock will break very quickly if you enter the AWG-9's Speed Gate threshold simply by flying in a general Perpendicular direction away from the Tomcat, often not even requiring a full 90 degree vector against its radar.

When being engaged by a Tomcat, employ standard Notch tactics, but you'll need to keep in mind a couple of other factors. Try to be below the Tomcat when you Notch because this is the first radar system that can switch between PD and SRC without breaking the lock. An experienced Tomcat pilot will start the engagement in PD mode, then filter to SRC mode when the target tries to go into a Notch/Go Cold.

Switching to SRC heavily mitigates the PD Notch vulnerability, but it does leave the lock vulnerable to Chaff and Ground clutter. Being below the Tomcat forces the radar to point "down" towards the ground so it'll be affected by radar returns from Mother Earth and can be confused further by Chaff. Ground clutter is not an exclusive factor in defeating an AWG-9 lock so don't rely on that by itself. This is why you always Chaff in a Notch

F-15A:

I'm going to be brief here with the F-15's AN/APG-63 radar. If you want an in depth review on engagements with Eagles in Fox 1 jousts, I went into depth on it here.

The Eagle can be very vulnerable to Notch tactics, if you maintain the correct position. While the Eagle does not have an engagement mode that isn't veiled by a PD filter, it doesn't need to have any other mode than its PD engagement modes. If you do not maintain the correct Notch position against its radar beam, the Sparrow will continue to track and intercept you.

Your Notch needs to be as close to a perfect T in relation to the Eagle's radar as you can possibly get. If you're even slightly off, Sparrow will send you back to the hangar. Chaff can be useful as the PD modes available to the Eagle can be confused by the Chaff if you manage to break lock for a second or two before it's able to reacquire you and get reliable tracking again. The Sparrow by that point will generally be too far vectored off course against you that it won't be able to re-engage you properly and miss.

Going Cold tactics are not very effective against the F-15 as you need to match the attacking Eagle's speed to reliably confuse the Sparrow here. It's possible, but you're never going to reliably head match that and since you're defending, you're probably going slower than your attacker anyways.

That doesn't mean turning away is useless, but don't be surprised if the Sparrow still sends you back to the hangar.


F-16A/C:

The radars found on the F-16A/C are the AN/APG-66. These are effectively budget AN/APG-63s found on the current F-15A Eagles. While they may be considered "budget" radars, they're just as deadly as the AN/APG-63. They're difficult to Notch and they can filter between PD and SRC radar. You basically want to treat these engagements as if you're engaging an F-15. Maintain a perfect Notch, deploy chaff to mitigate the operator switching to SRC to maintain lock.

Going Cold tactics against the F-16 are more effective than against the F-15.

"What about the other Western Sparrow Launchers?" you may be asking. Well, virtually all NATO aircraft are some variation derivative of the already presented radar systems. Unless it's French, those are uniquely French because France can never play nice when it comes to military arms development. French radar is more akin development path to the Soviets than the US/UK. If it's not a direct copy of a US radar system, then it's an offshoot of a United Kingdom radar system that was built with the United States to begin with (Sweden being the primary benefactor here). The US and UK worked very closely to develop airborne radar systems so a lot of them share DNA with each other.

If it's a Viggen or Gripen, you're going to use the F-16 tactics against them. If it's the Tornado F.3, you're going to use F-16 tactics against them. If it's French, well, take a moment to laugh, then treat it like defending against a better optimized Soviet system, neither of which launch Sparrow anyways. France won't get a serious contender here until it gets the Rafael.

[Desperadoscres]

Originally posted by Jaes:

That's because R-24s are easier to defeat due to the radar system that's present on the launch aircraft that carry those missiles.

Sorry, there's a lot of information to go over here so there won't be a TL;DR.

When we're discussing defending against Fox 1 missiles, the primary thing we need to be worried about is the radar guiding that missile. The most important thing to keep in mind about the missile is how quickly they accelerate off the rail of a launch aircraft as it gives you an idea of how to manage your distance between you and your attacker.

The AIM-7E/E-2 for instance has a higher initial velocity than the AIM-7F/M Sparrows so they will close on you quicker than latter missiles when we're talking about distances around 5-7km so they'll give you less time to defend by a second or two. While this may not seem like much, it makes a huge difference.

However, because the AIM-7E series has a very short amount of burn time for their fuel, they will lose energy very quickly and won't regain it if you force them to turn against you or if you "Go Cold" (go into rear-aspect) from your attacker. Pros and Cons to Going Cold, but it's a good "Save your bacon" tactic.

In the current top tier environment, it can be difficult to defend against an attacker launching a Sparrow because there's multiple aircraft using different radar systems involved with defeating that Sparrow.

First, you need to identify what's shooting at you, and do so quickly. If your RWR can't identify what's locking you up, it's gonna be that much harder to defend, and certain RWR systems won't even accurately display whether you're in the correct "Notch" position to begin with. That's going to be a challenge for you to figure out. What I'll primarily go over here are the common US aircraft you're going to run into and how to defeat their radar.

F-4J/S:

The first US Pulse-Doppler capable radar airborne "screw that flying object" interceptor. Using the AN/APG-59 radar system, credited as being the first radar system to include PD capabilities. Since it's the first of its kind, it also has operating quirks that are pretty straight forward to exploit.

Its biggest weakness is that it cannot change its Radar mode while locked. It can only lock in PD or SRC. If you break its lock, the operator needs to take time to switch back to the appropriate mode to re-engage lock, which depending on the distances involved, will often cause the Sparrow to continue flying past its intended target and make it too late to re-engage.

In order to reliable defeat the radar, put your nose 90 degrees in relation to the F-4J/S's radar beam hitting you, hold that position for three seconds, deploy chaff while doing so, and the lock will break. The Chaff is to make a hard re-engagement process even harder for your attacker, and it'll also make it easier to defeat the radar if it's in SRC mode and not PD mode.

If you're within 5km of the missile shot, you will not have enough time to successfully Notch the radar in most circumstances (unless your attacker is going really slow). Turning away from the attacker is a very reliable defense here.

F-14A/B:

The F-14 Tomcat is the host of the AWG-9 Radar array. This radar array is really what makes the Tomcat "4th Gen" and introduced a new era of combat aviation. The AWG-9 is very good at finding targets at long distances, keeping track of them, and destroying whatever target it does not like in its airspace at long ranges thanks to a combination of AIM-54s and Sparrows.

In order to have those kind of capabilities, the AWG-9 has highly exploitable weakness. It's extremely vulnerable to Notch tactics. A radar lock will break very quickly if you enter the AWG-9's Speed Gate threshold simply by flying in a general Perpendicular direction away from the Tomcat, often not even requiring a full 90 degree vector against its radar.

When being engaged by a Tomcat, employ standard Notch tactics, but you'll need to keep in mind a couple of other factors. Try to be below the Tomcat when you Notch because this is the first radar system that can switch between PD and SRC without breaking the lock. An experienced Tomcat pilot will start the engagement in PD mode, then filter to SRC mode when the target tries to go into a Notch/Go Cold.

Switching to SRC heavily mitigates the PD Notch vulnerability, but it does leave the lock vulnerable to Chaff and Ground clutter. Being below the Tomcat forces the radar to point "down" towards the ground so it'll be affected by radar returns from Mother Earth and can be confused further by Chaff. Ground clutter is not an exclusive factor in defeating an AWG-9 lock so don't rely on that by itself. This is why you always Chaff in a Notch

F-15A:

I'm going to be brief here with the F-15's AN/APG-63 radar. If you want an in depth review on engagements with Eagles in Fox 1 jousts, I went into depth on it here.

The Eagle can be very vulnerable to Notch tactics, if you maintain the correct position. While the Eagle does not have an engagement mode that isn't veiled by a PD filter, it doesn't need to have any other mode than its PD engagement modes. If you do not maintain the correct Notch position against its radar beam, the Sparrow will continue to track and intercept you.

Your Notch needs to be as close to a perfect T in relation to the Eagle's radar as you can possibly get. If you're even slightly off, Sparrow will send you back to the hangar. Chaff can be useful as the PD modes available to the Eagle can be confused by the Chaff if you manage to break lock for a second or two before it's able to reacquire you and get reliable tracking again. The Sparrow by that point will generally be too far vectored off course against you that it won't be able to re-engage you properly and miss.

Going Cold tactics are not very effective against the F-15 as you need to match the attacking Eagle's speed to reliably confuse the Sparrow here. It's possible, but you're never going to reliably head match that and since you're defending, you're probably going slower than your attacker anyways.

That doesn't mean turning away is useless, but don't be surprised if the Sparrow still sends you back to the hangar.


F-16A/C:

The radars found on the F-16A/C are the AN/APG-66. These are effectively budget AN/APG-63s found on the current F-15A Eagles. While they may be considered "budget" radars, they're just as deadly as the AN/APG-63. They're difficult to Notch and they can filter between PD and SRC radar. You basically want to treat these engagements as if you're engaging an F-15. Maintain a perfect Notch, deploy chaff to mitigate the operator switching to SRC to maintain lock.

Going Cold tactics against the F-16 are more effective than against the F-15.

"What about the other Western Sparrow Launchers?" you may be asking. Well, virtually all NATO aircraft are some variation derivative of the already presented radar systems. Unless it's French, those are uniquely French because France can never play nice when it comes to military arms development. French radar is more akin development path to the Soviets than the US/UK. If it's not a direct copy of a US radar system, then it's an offshoot of a United Kingdom radar system that was built with the United States to begin with (Sweden being the primary benefactor here). The US and UK worked very closely to develop airborne radar systems so a lot of them share DNA with each other.

If it's a Viggen or Gripen, you're going to use the F-16 tactics against them. If it's the Tornado F.3, you're going to use F-16 tactics against them. If it's French, well, take a moment to laugh, then treat it like defending against a better optimized Soviet system, neither of which launch Sparrow anyways. France won't get a serious contender here until it gets the Rafael.

Thank for the advice
Yeah my only top tier is the mirage 4000 and the mirage 530D are very lacking, like i manage to hit my target most of the time but they do a lot of hit marker

[ziffius]

Gee! I'm never be able to play top tier air battles.

[Desperadoscres]

Originally posted by Jaes:

That's because R-24s are easier to defeat due to the radar system that's present on the launch aircraft that carry those missiles.

Sorry, there's a lot of information to go over here so there won't be a TL;DR.

When we're discussing defending against Fox 1 missiles, the primary thing we need to be worried about is the radar guiding that missile. The most important thing to keep in mind about the missile is how quickly they accelerate off the rail of a launch aircraft as it gives you an idea of how to manage your distance between you and your attacker.

The AIM-7E/E-2 for instance has a higher initial velocity than the AIM-7F/M Sparrows so they will close on you quicker than latter missiles when we're talking about distances around 5-7km so they'll give you less time to defend by a second or two. While this may not seem like much, it makes a huge difference.

However, because the AIM-7E series has a very short amount of burn time for their fuel, they will lose energy very quickly and won't regain it if you force them to turn against you or if you "Go Cold" (go into rear-aspect) from your attacker. Pros and Cons to Going Cold, but it's a good "Save your bacon" tactic.

In the current top tier environment, it can be difficult to defend against an attacker launching a Sparrow because there's multiple aircraft using different radar systems involved with defeating that Sparrow.

First, you need to identify what's shooting at you, and do so quickly. If your RWR can't identify what's locking you up, it's gonna be that much harder to defend, and certain RWR systems won't even accurately display whether you're in the correct "Notch" position to begin with. That's going to be a challenge for you to figure out. What I'll primarily go over here are the common US aircraft you're going to run into and how to defeat their radar.

F-4J/S:

The first US Pulse-Doppler capable radar airborne "screw that flying object" interceptor. Using the AN/APG-59 radar system, credited as being the first radar system to include PD capabilities. Since it's the first of its kind, it also has operating quirks that are pretty straight forward to exploit.

Its biggest weakness is that it cannot change its Radar mode while locked. It can only lock in PD or SRC. If you break its lock, the operator needs to take time to switch back to the appropriate mode to re-engage lock, which depending on the distances involved, will often cause the Sparrow to continue flying past its intended target and make it too late to re-engage.

In order to reliable defeat the radar, put your nose 90 degrees in relation to the F-4J/S's radar beam hitting you, hold that position for three seconds, deploy chaff while doing so, and the lock will break. The Chaff is to make a hard re-engagement process even harder for your attacker, and it'll also make it easier to defeat the radar if it's in SRC mode and not PD mode.

If you're within 5km of the missile shot, you will not have enough time to successfully Notch the radar in most circumstances (unless your attacker is going really slow). Turning away from the attacker is a very reliable defense here.

F-14A/B:

The F-14 Tomcat is the host of the AWG-9 Radar array. This radar array is really what makes the Tomcat "4th Gen" and introduced a new era of combat aviation. The AWG-9 is very good at finding targets at long distances, keeping track of them, and destroying whatever target it does not like in its airspace at long ranges thanks to a combination of AIM-54s and Sparrows.

In order to have those kind of capabilities, the AWG-9 has highly exploitable weakness. It's extremely vulnerable to Notch tactics. A radar lock will break very quickly if you enter the AWG-9's Speed Gate threshold simply by flying in a general Perpendicular direction away from the Tomcat, often not even requiring a full 90 degree vector against its radar.

When being engaged by a Tomcat, employ standard Notch tactics, but you'll need to keep in mind a couple of other factors. Try to be below the Tomcat when you Notch because this is the first radar system that can switch between PD and SRC without breaking the lock. An experienced Tomcat pilot will start the engagement in PD mode, then filter to SRC mode when the target tries to go into a Notch/Go Cold.

Switching to SRC heavily mitigates the PD Notch vulnerability, but it does leave the lock vulnerable to Chaff and Ground clutter. Being below the Tomcat forces the radar to point "down" towards the ground so it'll be affected by radar returns from Mother Earth and can be confused further by Chaff. Ground clutter is not an exclusive factor in defeating an AWG-9 lock so don't rely on that by itself. This is why you always Chaff in a Notch

F-15A:

I'm going to be brief here with the F-15's AN/APG-63 radar. If you want an in depth review on engagements with Eagles in Fox 1 jousts, I went into depth on it here.

The Eagle can be very vulnerable to Notch tactics, if you maintain the correct position. While the Eagle does not have an engagement mode that isn't veiled by a PD filter, it doesn't need to have any other mode than its PD engagement modes. If you do not maintain the correct Notch position against its radar beam, the Sparrow will continue to track and intercept you.

Your Notch needs to be as close to a perfect T in relation to the Eagle's radar as you can possibly get. If you're even slightly off, Sparrow will send you back to the hangar. Chaff can be useful as the PD modes available to the Eagle can be confused by the Chaff if you manage to break lock for a second or two before it's able to reacquire you and get reliable tracking again. The Sparrow by that point will generally be too far vectored off course against you that it won't be able to re-engage you properly and miss.

Going Cold tactics are not very effective against the F-15 as you need to match the attacking Eagle's speed to reliably confuse the Sparrow here. It's possible, but you're never going to reliably head match that and since you're defending, you're probably going slower than your attacker anyways.

That doesn't mean turning away is useless, but don't be surprised if the Sparrow still sends you back to the hangar.


F-16A/C:

The radars found on the F-16A/C are the AN/APG-66. These are effectively budget AN/APG-63s found on the current F-15A Eagles. While they may be considered "budget" radars, they're just as deadly as the AN/APG-63. They're difficult to Notch and they can filter between PD and SRC radar. You basically want to treat these engagements as if you're engaging an F-15. Maintain a perfect Notch, deploy chaff to mitigate the operator switching to SRC to maintain lock.

Going Cold tactics against the F-16 are more effective than against the F-15.

"What about the other Western Sparrow Launchers?" you may be asking. Well, virtually all NATO aircraft are some variation derivative of the already presented radar systems. Unless it's French, those are uniquely French because France can never play nice when it comes to military arms development. French radar is more akin development path to the Soviets than the US/UK. If it's not a direct copy of a US radar system, then it's an offshoot of a United Kingdom radar system that was built with the United States to begin with (Sweden being the primary benefactor here). The US and UK worked very closely to develop airborne radar systems so a lot of them share DNA with each other.

If it's a Viggen or Gripen, you're going to use the F-16 tactics against them. If it's the Tornado F.3, you're going to use F-16 tactics against them. If it's French, well, take a moment to laugh, then treat it like defending against a better optimized Soviet system, neither of which launch Sparrow anyways. France won't get a serious contender here until it gets the Rafael.

Do you have the same thing for the communist missile?

[Fritou]

Jaes where do you get all these infos ?

[Doulos]

What!? Sparrows are considerably easier to notch and evade. The R-24 and R-27s are ridiculous to evade. The R-27 you just won't evade, the R-24 takes some effort.

The Sparrow will just fly into the ground if you let it. They miss more often than they hit after a few patches ago. Not sure why but they were broken and have yet to get repaired. Got some crazy video of one reversing course on a lock 10km away and flying straight back at me 😂

[Jaes]

Originally posted by Desperadoscres:

Do you have the same thing for the communist missile?

You'd basically use the same fundamentals as engaging an F-16 when we're talking about MiG-29 and SU-27, except they're less effective.

Soviet radar on the MiG-29 and SU-27 aren't super great, but they're good enough to get the job done. They're much easier to Notch, but the R-27 presents its own challenges in defeating due to its Inertial Guidance and Data Link capabilites.

Basically, what the R-27 can do is continue to guide against a target when it loses radar lock to a limited degree. Often times folks will keep traveling in the same direction that the R-27 was already guiding towards based on the last bit of information it received and still get intercepted. It's really important to change your heading sharply (turn away or try to turn into the missile, don't recommend the latter) or changing your altitude by going lower or higher, whichever is the best option in the given situation.

Treat being engaged by an R-27 like you're being engaged by an AIM-9M. Perform your defense, then change your heading, ideally while maintaining the Notch position so it's harder to be reacquired.

Originally posted by Doulos:

What!? Sparrows are considerably easier to notch and evade. The R-24 and R-27s are ridiculous to evade. The R-27 you just won't evade, the R-24 takes some effort.

There's a few things about the R-24 to consider.

Let's go over the R-24R first.

The typical launch aircraft is the MiG-23. This aircraft uses a standard SRC radar scan (vulnerable to chaff) and has access to MTI tracking capabilities (highly resistance to chaff).

MTI (Moving Target Indication) is a very ghetto version of Pulse Doppler. It requires the launch aircraft to be at low altitude because it uses the physical terrain to filter out ground clutter returns using the radar's side lobe arrays and determine what is or isn't a moving object.

The MiG-23 is at its deadliest when it can employ a shot using MTI mode and at shorter ranges, 5-6km. The R-24 accelerates pretty quick so it doesn't give you much time to defend. Best way to approach a MiG-23 at short distances is by keeping your nose about 45-50 degrees off its own nose, this will make it easier to defend against their R-24R shot.

However, the R-24R does have a limited Inertial Guidance capability so it's important to defend against it like you would an R-27. It's not nearly as good as the R-27 under Inertial Guidance, but it's important to change your position.

The R-24R is also a Continous Wave missile so if you're still in the MiG-23's radar scope as you're deploying chaff and moving towards the MiG, the R-24 has a good chance of ignoring the chaff and continuing to track. Reducing your closure rate (turning away/go into a Notch) will defeat the missile tracking against you when Chaff is deployed.

Then of course, there's the R-24T. Cut afterburner and pre-flare as well as making sure you change your heading. Very easy to defeat as long as they don't get a rear aspect shot on you.

[Jaes]

Originally posted by Fritou (broken toothbrush):

Jaes where do you get all these infos ?

Trial and error and dying a lot.

This also helps. Current spreadsheet on missile stats.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SsOpw9LAKOs0V5FBnv1VqAlu3OssmX7DJaaVAUREw78/edit#gid=128448244

[Firestorm🗿]

Originally posted by Jaes:

That's because R-24s are easier to defeat due to the radar system that's present on the launch aircraft that carry those missiles.

Sorry, there's a lot of information to go over here so there won't be a TL;DR.

When we're discussing defending against Fox 1 missiles, the primary thing we need to be worried about is the radar guiding that missile. The most important thing to keep in mind about the missile is how quickly they accelerate off the rail of a launch aircraft as it gives you an idea of how to manage your distance between you and your attacker.

The AIM-7E/E-2 for instance has a higher initial velocity than the AIM-7F/M Sparrows so they will close on you quicker than latter missiles when we're talking about distances around 5-7km so they'll give you less time to defend by a second or two. While this may not seem like much, it makes a huge difference.

However, because the AIM-7E series has a very short amount of burn time for their fuel, they will lose energy very quickly and won't regain it if you force them to turn against you or if you "Go Cold" (go into rear-aspect) from your attacker. Pros and Cons to Going Cold, but it's a good "Save your bacon" tactic.

In the current top tier environment, it can be difficult to defend against an attacker launching a Sparrow because there's multiple aircraft using different radar systems involved with defeating that Sparrow.

First, you need to identify what's shooting at you, and do so quickly. If your RWR can't identify what's locking you up, it's gonna be that much harder to defend, and certain RWR systems won't even accurately display whether you're in the correct "Notch" position to begin with. That's going to be a challenge for you to figure out. What I'll primarily go over here are the common US aircraft you're going to run into and how to defeat their radar.

F-4J/S:

The first US Pulse-Doppler capable radar airborne "screw that flying object" interceptor. Using the AN/APG-59 radar system, credited as being the first radar system to include PD capabilities. Since it's the first of its kind, it also has operating quirks that are pretty straight forward to exploit.

Its biggest weakness is that it cannot change its Radar mode while locked. It can only lock in PD or SRC. If you break its lock, the operator needs to take time to switch back to the appropriate mode to re-engage lock, which depending on the distances involved, will often cause the Sparrow to continue flying past its intended target and make it too late to re-engage.

In order to reliable defeat the radar, put your nose 90 degrees in relation to the F-4J/S's radar beam hitting you, hold that position for three seconds, deploy chaff while doing so, and the lock will break. The Chaff is to make a hard re-engagement process even harder for your attacker, and it'll also make it easier to defeat the radar if it's in SRC mode and not PD mode.

If you're within 5km of the missile shot, you will not have enough time to successfully Notch the radar in most circumstances (unless your attacker is going really slow). Turning away from the attacker is a very reliable defense here.

F-14A/B:

The F-14 Tomcat is the host of the AWG-9 Radar array. This radar array is really what makes the Tomcat "4th Gen" and introduced a new era of combat aviation. The AWG-9 is very good at finding targets at long distances, keeping track of them, and destroying whatever target it does not like in its airspace at long ranges thanks to a combination of AIM-54s and Sparrows.

In order to have those kind of capabilities, the AWG-9 has highly exploitable weakness. It's extremely vulnerable to Notch tactics. A radar lock will break very quickly if you enter the AWG-9's Speed Gate threshold simply by flying in a general Perpendicular direction away from the Tomcat, often not even requiring a full 90 degree vector against its radar.

When being engaged by a Tomcat, employ standard Notch tactics, but you'll need to keep in mind a couple of other factors. Try to be below the Tomcat when you Notch because this is the first radar system that can switch between PD and SRC without breaking the lock. An experienced Tomcat pilot will start the engagement in PD mode, then filter to SRC mode when the target tries to go into a Notch/Go Cold.

Switching to SRC heavily mitigates the PD Notch vulnerability, but it does leave the lock vulnerable to Chaff and Ground clutter. Being below the Tomcat forces the radar to point "down" towards the ground so it'll be affected by radar returns from Mother Earth and can be confused further by Chaff. Ground clutter is not an exclusive factor in defeating an AWG-9 lock so don't rely on that by itself. This is why you always Chaff in a Notch

F-15A:

I'm going to be brief here with the F-15's AN/APG-63 radar. If you want an in depth review on engagements with Eagles in Fox 1 jousts, I went into depth on it here.

The Eagle can be very vulnerable to Notch tactics, if you maintain the correct position. While the Eagle does not have an engagement mode that isn't veiled by a PD filter, it doesn't need to have any other mode than its PD engagement modes. If you do not maintain the correct Notch position against its radar beam, the Sparrow will continue to track and intercept you.

Your Notch needs to be as close to a perfect T in relation to the Eagle's radar as you can possibly get. If you're even slightly off, Sparrow will send you back to the hangar. Chaff can be useful as the PD modes available to the Eagle can be confused by the Chaff if you manage to break lock for a second or two before it's able to reacquire you and get reliable tracking again. The Sparrow by that point will generally be too far vectored off course against you that it won't be able to re-engage you properly and miss.

Going Cold tactics are not very effective against the F-15 as you need to match the attacking Eagle's speed to reliably confuse the Sparrow here. It's possible, but you're never going to reliably head match that and since you're defending, you're probably going slower than your attacker anyways.

That doesn't mean turning away is useless, but don't be surprised if the Sparrow still sends you back to the hangar.


F-16A/C:

The radars found on the F-16A/C are the AN/APG-66. These are effectively budget AN/APG-63s found on the current F-15A Eagles. While they may be considered "budget" radars, they're just as deadly as the AN/APG-63. They're difficult to Notch and they can filter between PD and SRC radar. You basically want to treat these engagements as if you're engaging an F-15. Maintain a perfect Notch, deploy chaff to mitigate the operator switching to SRC to maintain lock.

Going Cold tactics against the F-16 are more effective than against the F-15.

"What about the other Western Sparrow Launchers?" you may be asking. Well, virtually all NATO aircraft are some variation derivative of the already presented radar systems. Unless it's French, those are uniquely French because France can never play nice when it comes to military arms development. French radar is more akin development path to the Soviets than the US/UK. If it's not a direct copy of a US radar system, then it's an offshoot of a United Kingdom radar system that was built with the United States to begin with (Sweden being the primary benefactor here). The US and UK worked very closely to develop airborne radar systems so a lot of them share DNA with each other.

If it's a Viggen or Gripen, you're going to use the F-16 tactics against them. If it's the Tornado F.3, you're going to use F-16 tactics against them. If it's French, well, take a moment to laugh, then treat it like defending against a better optimized Soviet system, neither of which launch Sparrow anyways. France won't get a serious contender here until it gets the Rafael.

This helped me more than a zillion youtube tutorials ever did. Thank you. Just dodged a sparrow intentionally for the first time ever in my mig21 bis sau.

[French Cat]

Originally posted by Jaes:

That's because R-24s are easier to defeat due to the radar system that's present on the launch aircraft that carry those missiles.

Sorry, there's a lot of information to go over here so there won't be a TL;DR.

When we're discussing defending against Fox 1 missiles, the primary thing we need to be worried about is the radar guiding that missile. The most important thing to keep in mind about the missile is how quickly they accelerate off the rail of a launch aircraft as it gives you an idea of how to manage your distance between you and your attacker.

The AIM-7E/E-2 for instance has a higher initial velocity than the AIM-7F/M Sparrows so they will close on you quicker than latter missiles when we're talking about distances around 5-7km so they'll give you less time to defend by a second or two. While this may not seem like much, it makes a huge difference.

However, because the AIM-7E series has a very short amount of burn time for their fuel, they will lose energy very quickly and won't regain it if you force them to turn against you or if you "Go Cold" (go into rear-aspect) from your attacker. Pros and Cons to Going Cold, but it's a good "Save your bacon" tactic.

In the current top tier environment, it can be difficult to defend against an attacker launching a Sparrow because there's multiple aircraft using different radar systems involved with defeating that Sparrow.

First, you need to identify what's shooting at you, and do so quickly. If your RWR can't identify what's locking you up, it's gonna be that much harder to defend, and certain RWR systems won't even accurately display whether you're in the correct "Notch" position to begin with. That's going to be a challenge for you to figure out. What I'll primarily go over here are the common US aircraft you're going to run into and how to defeat their radar.

F-4J/S:

The first US Pulse-Doppler capable radar airborne "screw that flying object" interceptor. Using the AN/APG-59 radar system, credited as being the first radar system to include PD capabilities. Since it's the first of its kind, it also has operating quirks that are pretty straight forward to exploit.

Its biggest weakness is that it cannot change its Radar mode while locked. It can only lock in PD or SRC. If you break its lock, the operator needs to take time to switch back to the appropriate mode to re-engage lock, which depending on the distances involved, will often cause the Sparrow to continue flying past its intended target and make it too late to re-engage.

In order to reliable defeat the radar, put your nose 90 degrees in relation to the F-4J/S's radar beam hitting you, hold that position for three seconds, deploy chaff while doing so, and the lock will break. The Chaff is to make a hard re-engagement process even harder for your attacker, and it'll also make it easier to defeat the radar if it's in SRC mode and not PD mode.

If you're within 5km of the missile shot, you will not have enough time to successfully Notch the radar in most circumstances (unless your attacker is going really slow). Turning away from the attacker is a very reliable defense here.

F-14A/B:

The F-14 Tomcat is the host of the AWG-9 Radar array. This radar array is really what makes the Tomcat "4th Gen" and introduced a new era of combat aviation. The AWG-9 is very good at finding targets at long distances, keeping track of them, and destroying whatever target it does not like in its airspace at long ranges thanks to a combination of AIM-54s and Sparrows.

In order to have those kind of capabilities, the AWG-9 has highly exploitable weakness. It's extremely vulnerable to Notch tactics. A radar lock will break very quickly if you enter the AWG-9's Speed Gate threshold simply by flying in a general Perpendicular direction away from the Tomcat, often not even requiring a full 90 degree vector against its radar.

When being engaged by a Tomcat, employ standard Notch tactics, but you'll need to keep in mind a couple of other factors. Try to be below the Tomcat when you Notch because this is the first radar system that can switch between PD and SRC without breaking the lock. An experienced Tomcat pilot will start the engagement in PD mode, then filter to SRC mode when the target tries to go into a Notch/Go Cold.

Switching to SRC heavily mitigates the PD Notch vulnerability, but it does leave the lock vulnerable to Chaff and Ground clutter. Being below the Tomcat forces the radar to point "down" towards the ground so it'll be affected by radar returns from Mother Earth and can be confused further by Chaff. Ground clutter is not an exclusive factor in defeating an AWG-9 lock so don't rely on that by itself. This is why you always Chaff in a Notch

F-15A:

I'm going to be brief here with the F-15's AN/APG-63 radar. If you want an in depth review on engagements with Eagles in Fox 1 jousts, I went into depth on it here.

The Eagle can be very vulnerable to Notch tactics, if you maintain the correct position. While the Eagle does not have an engagement mode that isn't veiled by a PD filter, it doesn't need to have any other mode than its PD engagement modes. If you do not maintain the correct Notch position against its radar beam, the Sparrow will continue to track and intercept you.

Your Notch needs to be as close to a perfect T in relation to the Eagle's radar as you can possibly get. If you're even slightly off, Sparrow will send you back to the hangar. Chaff can be useful as the PD modes available to the Eagle can be confused by the Chaff if you manage to break lock for a second or two before it's able to reacquire you and get reliable tracking again. The Sparrow by that point will generally be too far vectored off course against you that it won't be able to re-engage you properly and miss.

Going Cold tactics are not very effective against the F-15 as you need to match the attacking Eagle's speed to reliably confuse the Sparrow here. It's possible, but you're never going to reliably head match that and since you're defending, you're probably going slower than your attacker anyways.

That doesn't mean turning away is useless, but don't be surprised if the Sparrow still sends you back to the hangar.


F-16A/C:

The radars found on the F-16A/C are the AN/APG-66. These are effectively budget AN/APG-63s found on the current F-15A Eagles. While they may be considered "budget" radars, they're just as deadly as the AN/APG-63. They're difficult to Notch and they can filter between PD and SRC radar. You basically want to treat these engagements as if you're engaging an F-15. Maintain a perfect Notch, deploy chaff to mitigate the operator switching to SRC to maintain lock.

Going Cold tactics against the F-16 are more effective than against the F-15.

"What about the other Western Sparrow Launchers?" you may be asking. Well, virtually all NATO aircraft are some variation derivative of the already presented radar systems. Unless it's French, those are uniquely French because France can never play nice when it comes to military arms development. French radar is more akin development path to the Soviets than the US/UK. If it's not a direct copy of a US radar system, then it's an offshoot of a United Kingdom radar system that was built with the United States to begin with (Sweden being the primary benefactor here). The US and UK worked very closely to develop airborne radar systems so a lot of them share DNA with each other.

If it's a Viggen or Gripen, you're going to use the F-16 tactics against them. If it's the Tornado F.3, you're going to use F-16 tactics against them. If it's French, well, take a moment to laugh, then treat it like defending against a better optimized Soviet system, neither of which launch Sparrow anyways. France won't get a serious contender here until it gets the Rafael.

You don’t need to read all this, just fly low. 99% of the time the missile will crash into the ground or miss.