F-35A Lightning II at Hill AFB
Re: F-35A Lightning II at Hill AFB
Interesting info about the F-35 and it's missiles:
When a missile is fired from an F-35, how long does it take the enemy to track that missile and are any of the missiles stealthy?
Air-air missiles (AAMs) already have pretty low RCS to begin with and are not something tracked by Fighter-radars. You’ve Missile Warning system (MWS/MAWS) for that purpose. These are UV/IR/active sensors that are designed to detect or track a missile’s signature. Vast majority of 4th gen. aircraft as well as Su-57 have UV-based MWS. These detect the UV-C radiation from a missile’s burning motor. They’re good in detecting SAM launches or MANPADs at low altitude but don’t fare well against AAMs since ozone concentration increases rapidly with altitude. At altitude UV-MWS can detect AAM launches from less than 6 km – making them practically useless against BVR missiles.
Very few 4th gen. aircraft have IR based MWS, most use two IIR sensors with very wide FoV (~180°) for spherical coverage (Rafale’s DDM-NG for example). Whereas EF Typhoon use a millimetre radar based MAWS comprising of three Ka band radars for spherical coverage. IR MWS on 4th gen. platforms should have similar range as modern IIR seekers on off-boresight missiles.
An Israeli study comparing the performance of UV and IR MWS for Transport aircraft found the IR MWS having upto 20 km range at high altitude compared to 5 km for UV MWS.[1] While there’s little public data about the range of IR/active-radar MWS, even under ideal conditions they’re unlikely to detect BVR missiles beyond 20–30 km. This is why RWR still plays a crucial role in detecting or anticipating missile launches from their maximum range.
However, an adversary’s RWR will be ineffective against F-35 since APG-81 radar has very powerful LPI characteristics and the F-35’s wide range of passive sensors (DAS, EOTS and ASQ-239) can provide targeting solution with little assistance from the radar. We see this in large exercises time and again where F-22 & F-35 pilots call the shot over radio and their target had no idea of being shot at. Doesn’t matter whether its Aggressor F-16s with Israeli jamming pods or brand new F-18 Super Hornets with one of the best integrated EW suite – they die without ever knowing who or where they were killed from. While the missiles are electronically simulated and kills are confirmed in debrief, the targeting solution/radar tracks for missile launches are real.
Another myth surrounding F-35 is that opening of weapons bay for missile launch can warn the target. In F-22 and F-35 weapons are ejected out using pneumatic launchers. The weapons bay doors remain open only for about two seconds during the missile launch.
When commanded for in-flight missile launch, the AVEL system charges, and then safely ejects the missile out of the weapons bay through the air-flow boundary layer in less than 1/10 of a second at more than 25 feet per second with a force of 40 G at peak acceleration.[2]
The entire launch sequence is simply too small to be a factor in radar detection. For vast majority of targets, the first time they will be aware of an AIM-120D launched from F-35 is when the missile goes active 2 miles from the target.
It’s also important to understand that Situational Awareness of the battlefield is important. It’s easier to know when you’re under attack from an adversary that you’re tracking than it is from someone you’ve no idea about. In air combat pilots can easily succumb to tunnel vision where they’re entirely focused on the target they’re engaging – leaving them vulnerable to everybody else on the battlefield. As former Chief of RAAF puts it best,
“In any engagement I have had in the last 20 years where I have turned with another aircraft in a bigger picture (multi-threat) environment, every time I have tried to do that I have ended up being shot by somebody else who actually is not in the fight.
As soon as you enter a turning fight, your situational awareness actually shrinks down because the only thing you can be operating with is the aircraft you are turning with. The person who has the advantage is the person who can stand off, watch the engagement and just pick you off at the time.”
– Air Marshal Brown, former Chief of RAAF.
In Vietnam war, 80% of USAF pilots that were shot had no idea of an impending attack until it was too late. This was at a time of short-range missiles and semi-active radar homing where you had to constantly illuminate your target. You can only imagine what will happen in an era of AESA radars with powerful LPI characteristics, missiles with two-way datalink and VLO aircraft like F-35.
Unless the F-35 is launching a missile from visual range (where you’ll have negligible reaction time any way), by the time an enemy detects the AIM-120D/Meteor, in most cases it’ll already be too late.
When a missile is fired from an F-35, how long does it take the enemy to track that missile and are any of the missiles stealthy?
Air-air missiles (AAMs) already have pretty low RCS to begin with and are not something tracked by Fighter-radars. You’ve Missile Warning system (MWS/MAWS) for that purpose. These are UV/IR/active sensors that are designed to detect or track a missile’s signature. Vast majority of 4th gen. aircraft as well as Su-57 have UV-based MWS. These detect the UV-C radiation from a missile’s burning motor. They’re good in detecting SAM launches or MANPADs at low altitude but don’t fare well against AAMs since ozone concentration increases rapidly with altitude. At altitude UV-MWS can detect AAM launches from less than 6 km – making them practically useless against BVR missiles.
Very few 4th gen. aircraft have IR based MWS, most use two IIR sensors with very wide FoV (~180°) for spherical coverage (Rafale’s DDM-NG for example). Whereas EF Typhoon use a millimetre radar based MAWS comprising of three Ka band radars for spherical coverage. IR MWS on 4th gen. platforms should have similar range as modern IIR seekers on off-boresight missiles.
An Israeli study comparing the performance of UV and IR MWS for Transport aircraft found the IR MWS having upto 20 km range at high altitude compared to 5 km for UV MWS.[1] While there’s little public data about the range of IR/active-radar MWS, even under ideal conditions they’re unlikely to detect BVR missiles beyond 20–30 km. This is why RWR still plays a crucial role in detecting or anticipating missile launches from their maximum range.
However, an adversary’s RWR will be ineffective against F-35 since APG-81 radar has very powerful LPI characteristics and the F-35’s wide range of passive sensors (DAS, EOTS and ASQ-239) can provide targeting solution with little assistance from the radar. We see this in large exercises time and again where F-22 & F-35 pilots call the shot over radio and their target had no idea of being shot at. Doesn’t matter whether its Aggressor F-16s with Israeli jamming pods or brand new F-18 Super Hornets with one of the best integrated EW suite – they die without ever knowing who or where they were killed from. While the missiles are electronically simulated and kills are confirmed in debrief, the targeting solution/radar tracks for missile launches are real.
Another myth surrounding F-35 is that opening of weapons bay for missile launch can warn the target. In F-22 and F-35 weapons are ejected out using pneumatic launchers. The weapons bay doors remain open only for about two seconds during the missile launch.
When commanded for in-flight missile launch, the AVEL system charges, and then safely ejects the missile out of the weapons bay through the air-flow boundary layer in less than 1/10 of a second at more than 25 feet per second with a force of 40 G at peak acceleration.[2]
The entire launch sequence is simply too small to be a factor in radar detection. For vast majority of targets, the first time they will be aware of an AIM-120D launched from F-35 is when the missile goes active 2 miles from the target.
It’s also important to understand that Situational Awareness of the battlefield is important. It’s easier to know when you’re under attack from an adversary that you’re tracking than it is from someone you’ve no idea about. In air combat pilots can easily succumb to tunnel vision where they’re entirely focused on the target they’re engaging – leaving them vulnerable to everybody else on the battlefield. As former Chief of RAAF puts it best,
“In any engagement I have had in the last 20 years where I have turned with another aircraft in a bigger picture (multi-threat) environment, every time I have tried to do that I have ended up being shot by somebody else who actually is not in the fight.
As soon as you enter a turning fight, your situational awareness actually shrinks down because the only thing you can be operating with is the aircraft you are turning with. The person who has the advantage is the person who can stand off, watch the engagement and just pick you off at the time.”
– Air Marshal Brown, former Chief of RAAF.
In Vietnam war, 80% of USAF pilots that were shot had no idea of an impending attack until it was too late. This was at a time of short-range missiles and semi-active radar homing where you had to constantly illuminate your target. You can only imagine what will happen in an era of AESA radars with powerful LPI characteristics, missiles with two-way datalink and VLO aircraft like F-35.
Unless the F-35 is launching a missile from visual range (where you’ll have negligible reaction time any way), by the time an enemy detects the AIM-120D/Meteor, in most cases it’ll already be too late.