Leaderboard

Ok Mick. It's very situation dependant. RWS (Range While Search) Mode Has longest detection range Has widest/tallest search areas available to the radar Only directly provides bearing & range to a contact (altitude can be worked out roughly by antenna elevation but that's more an intermediate level skill) Cannot ID contacts as friendly/unknown/hostile (in F-14) Cannot generate a track so target aspect/heading unknown Cannot be used to launch/guide weapons Best situation to use: Cruisin' , looking for something interesting. (Generally not a good idea to be in midst dogfight... but never say never!) TWS (Track While Scan) Mode Has shorter detection range than RWS Search areas available to the radar are more limited so as to maintain a contact update of under 2 seconds (needed for tracking functionality) Provides bearing, range & now altitude to a contact Can generate a track of contact(s) so target aspect/heading now is known Can ID contacts as friendly/unknown/hostile Can track multiple targets whilst maintaining scan of surrounding area to improve Situational Awareness (SA) Can be used to simultaneous launch/guide multiple Fox-3 type (Active Radar Homing (ARH); AIM-54 Phoenix, AIM-120 AMRAAM and R-77) weapons Cannot guide Fox-1 type (Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH); AIM-7 Sparrow, Matra Super 530 and R-27R/ER) weapons Best situations to use: Found something interesting, could be bad guys, let's find out! Is bad guys! Let's engage Beyond Visual Range (BVR) with multiple badass boom-sticks! STT (Single Target Track) Mode Has similar range restriction as TWS Used to lock the radar antenna to Track a Single Target - hence Single Target Track (STT) Cannot track multiple targets simultaneously Cannot maintain scan of surrounding area to improve Situational Awareness (SA) during track of target Can be used to launch guide all A2A weapon types, however... Primarily designed to guide Fox-1 type (Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH); AIM-7 Sparrow, Matra Super 530 and R-27R/ER) weapons Best situations to use: Run out of Phoenixes! Bad guys still inbound! Pick the most dangerous and lock him up for a Sparrow shot! Approaching a furball at BVR distance and want to help my mates out without accidentally shooting one of them down. Want to target a specific bogey for a BVR Phoenix shot to avoid my wingman and I shooting two missiles at the same target In the F-14 all these BVR modes have to be asked for from your RIO; if you have a breather in back then ask him nicely over TS; if Jester is back there then you request the various modes via his Menu. For those flying the single seater a/c, you will have the means to choose these yourself as pilot. As for symbology (F-14 specific): Unknown Unknown sensor track in RWS, TWS and STT modes. Hostile Track in TWS and STT modes designated as hostile by RIO. Friend Track in TWS and STT modes designated as friendly by RIO. Home base Waypoint representing home base, carrier or airfield. Waypoint WCS navigational waypoint, supplanted by number indicating waypoint 1, 2 or 3. Altitude Numerics When altitude numerics are selected for display a number on the left side of the tracks indicate track altitude to nearest ten thousands of feet. The number four as an examples indicate an altitude between 35,000 and 45,000 feet. Available on radar and data link tracks. Firing Order Numerics Indicates AIM-54 phoenix target prioritization (1 to 6) in WCS when in the TWS mode. Next missile launch will target track with number 1 and remove the number from that track to advance the other 5 track numbers one step to prepare for next launch. Mandatory attack selection on a target forces the WCS to always include that target in the prioritization. Next launch selection automatically sets hooked target as number one in the prioritization queue. Time-to-Impact (TTI) After AIM-54 launch the firing order number on a track is replaced with the TTI or time-to-impact indication, showing WCS calculated time until missile intercepts the target track. When the AIM-54 active command is sent the TTI numbers flash to indicate this. Velocity Vector Velocity vector emanating from center dot of tracks when velocity vector display is selected. Vector direction represents track heading and length represents track speed so that the max indicated speed (1 800 knots) is 1.5 inches on the TID. In TID ground stabilized mode the vector direction represents track true heading and the vector length represents track ground speed. In TID aircraft stabilized and attack modes the vector direction represents track relative heading (to own aircraft) and the vector length represents track speed relative to own aircraft.