Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
by Carlo Kopp
1982, 2005 Carlo Kopp Radar guided air to air missiles currently represent the best of what state of the art technology can offer, both in terms of range, accuracy and resistance to countermeasures. T his reflects in the fact, that these weapons are only used by the world's frontline air forces, the maintenance of the complex fire control systems required being beyond the abilities of the average T hird World country. In comparison with the Western World, even the Warpac air forces use few of these weapons, up to the mid seventies only the USSR using a number of types on air defence aircraft of the IA PVO-Strany. However, the situation is changing, as the Russians are currently equipping tactical aircraft with radar guided versions of the AA-7 and AA-8 and low level penetration will become more difficult, for Western interdiction aircraft as the new Super Foxbat, with its lookdown shoot-down capable 25 nm AA-X-9, or rather AA-9, is deployed. On the brighter side, ... a competitive shoot-off ended between Hughes and Raytheon for the Amraam (Advanced Medium Range Air-Air Missile), Hughes winning the contract. Amraam is the replacement for the Western air forces' radar guided Sparrow. The weapon is a fire and forget, active radar guided missile with inertial midcourse guidance, enabling launches against targets pursuing the launch aircraft. W ith a range and speed better than the Sparrow, this overall capability is packaged into an airframe comparable in size to the IR Sidewinder, allowing the F-14 and F-15 to carry eight of these weapons, instead of the customary four radar guided weapons. Some reports also indicate that the late eighties Sidewinder replacement, the ASRAAM, may also be fitted with active radar guidance, in preference to the IR guidance of its predecessor. Radar guidance systems detect and home in on their targets by sensing electromagnetic energy reflected from the target's surface. The source of the reflected radiation is a radar transmitter; in the instance of weapons with active radar guidance, this transmitter is situated within the missile; in the case of semiactive guidance, it is carried by the launch aircraft. In either case the transmitter must beam electromagnetic radiation at the target, this radiation must travel to the target, reflect, travel back to the receiving antenna of the missile, be amplified, demodulated and analysed to determine the direction of the target, this information then enables the guidance computer to steer the weapon toward the target to achieve a kill. An effective weapon must have the ability to discriminate between the target's return and reflections from its background, i.e. the surface of the Earth or ocean, it should also be capable of resisting jamming or deception and be able to penetrate through adverse weather conditions.
Radar
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Radar theory is an extremely complex subject requiring a good understanding of electromagnetism, and wave theory, fortunately though, the basic principles are fairly straightforward. Electromagnetic waves are generated whenever we induce changes, typically oscillations, in an electric or magnetic field. These waves then propagate outward at the speed of light, 3.108 msec '. The rate at which the oscillation occurs then determines the wavelength, by the relationship lambda = c/f ( lambda = wavelength, c = velocity of light, f = frequency of oscillation). For practical purposes, if we intend to create directional means of these waves, we must employ a wavelength shorter than the dimensions of our antenna (an antenna being a device which radiates or receives electromagnetic waves), current radar applications involving wavelengths of the order of a metre down to centimetres, these corresponding to frequencies from 1 GHz (109 cycles/sec) to around 60 GHz (classified as the microwave band). The term radar is an acronym - Radio Detection And Ranging. A radar is comprised of two basic subsystems - a transmitter and a receiver. A transmitter is a device which generates a microwave signal, this signal is usually modulated (typically pulsed on-off ), amplified and fed into a transmitting antenna. As compared to low frequency electromagnetic energy, microwaves cannot be conducted by conventional cables, they require waveguides (waveguides are hollow [rectangular or circular] sections with inner walls coated with conducted layers - the common term used is plumbing), these must have extremely low losses because the power output of the transmitter is usually of the order of Kilowatts (or tens to hundreds of kW in pulsed applications). Pulsed outputs are used for a number of reasons, the main factors being rangefinding and peak power output. The range of a target can be easily determined by measuring the time it takes for a pulse to travel from the transmitter to the target and back. In considering the power output, the more power delivered = the greater the range and ability to resist jamming, on the other hand the larger the demands on the transmitter's main output amplifier (or oscillator). The solution is found in pulsing the output, the time between the pulses being much longer than the duration of the pulse (consider a peak output of 100 kW, pulses 10 msecs long 100 msecs apart - the average power output is only 10 kW ). The output power is then fed into an antenna, which focusses it into a beam. Surveillance radars usually employ fairly wide beams, the objective being the detection of the target, tracking beams, on the other hand, must be very narrow, as they serve to accurately measure the position of the target with respect to the radar. Antennas may be conventional parabolic dishes or in newer systems, phased arrays, which may scan electronically without the need to point the antenna. The transmitted microwave energy then propagates through the atmosphere toward the target. Like all forms of electromagnetic radiation, microwaves are attenuated by the atmosphere - both absorbed and scattered. Scattering is primarily due to water particles in the atmosphere, however, as the wavelength of the radiation is much larger than the size of the water droplets, microwaves do not experience the catastrophic attenuation IR does (see IR guidance, March 1982), though the effective range will be decreased as the amount of water present increases. Absorption is a quantum physical effect (TE March 1982), in the instance of microwave wavelengths this is mainly due to resonance in the Oz molecule, which exhibits absorption lines between 30 and 0.5 cm. Over larger distances this may cause a reasonably large loss of signal. The energy which covers the distance between the source and target then experiences absorption and reflection on the target's surface.
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
Exposing its belly, this F-14A displays the three classes of missile it is armed with - IR heat seeking, semi-active radar and active radar. The semi-active AIM-7F Sparrow (starboard glove pylon) is a late model of the AIM-7 used during the Vietnam war (at the time plagued by low reliability), the weapon has a maximum range around 100 km, cruising speed Mach 4 and carries a 40 kg continuous rod warhead. This missile will equip the RAAF's F-18A fighters, though it will be later replaced by the smaller and more capable Amraam. The large weapon beneath the fuselage is the AIM-54A Phoenix, with no doubt the world's most lethal air-to-air missile, with a range of 200 km and a big 60 kg warhead. The current A version will be shortly replaced with the newer AIM-54C, equipped with more capable digital signal processors and with a lighter and cheaper airframe. (Lcdr. Dave Erickson, VF-51, USS Kitty Hawk)
Electrically conductive materials usually reflect very well, sharp straight edges on an airframe often behave like antennas, in general curved surfaces are worse reflectors than flat surfaces (consider the shape of the B-1, which has 1/10 the radar cross-section of a B52). A usual measure of an aircraft's ability to reflect microwaves is its radar cross-section (12.566 power reflected per unit solid angle/power incident on target), which varies with the direction of the incident radiation. A fighter, head-on, has a cross section between 0.1 and 1 m2 for the 3 to 10 cm band, whereas a bomber could approach 10 mz (don't try thinking of a B-52's cross section!). The use of composite materials reduces the signature, just as radar absorbing paints help. The reflected microwave energy then travels back to the receiver, which in many instances employs the same antenna as the transmitter. The signal which reaches the receiver is a mixture of a target return, reflected energy from the background (clutter) and electrical noise. Depending on the type of receiver it may or may not be amplified, after which it is mixed with a microwave signal of a higher frequency, a process known as superheterodyning. Mixing creates sum and difference frequencies, the difference frequency being in the high frequency (tens to a hundred MHz) band, this frequency is then amplified (due to a number of reasons, it is difficult to directly amplify microwave signals) and subsequently demodulated. The demodulated signal is then processed by electronics to yield information on the target, typically range and velocity relative to the radar. Modern radars employ complex techniques to reject clutter, employing high speed digital signal processors, these also serve to circumvent jamming or deception.
of such a weapon rather a hindrance than a gain to an air force's combat capability. As things turned out, two different guidance systems were tried, beam riding guidance and semi-active guidance. The former class is generally regarded as extinct (in a beam riding system, the missile travels along a tracking beam transmitted by the launch aircraft's fire control radar). The weapon's accuracy is given only by the fire control's tracking accuracy, which need not be very good, particularly at long ranges. This, and problems associated with the dynamics of the weapons flight, led to the eventual demise of the whole class (AIM-7A, AA-1 Alkali). Currently, beam riding (laser, though) is used by the RBS-70 SAM. The latter class of weapon not only survived two decades, in fact it thrived and currently represents the main medium range AAM in most frontline air forces. In a semi-active guidance system, the launch aircraft acquires the target with its fire control radar, and if the conditions are right, will track it. The Weapons Systems Officer (F-4, typically) will then power up the missile and lock the launch aircraft's illuminator onto the target. The illuminator is usually a small, separate narrow beam radar transmitter which can be selectively pointed at a target by use of the tracking information generated by the fire control radar. If the missile's guidance then succeeds in locking on to the target's radar return, the missile may then be launched. The AIM-7, as carried by the F-4, F-14, F-15, F-18 is ejected from its mount and when clear from the launch aircraft, fires its solid propellant rocket engine. It then accelerates to its cruise velocity, pointing itself at the target. The guidance system will generate an error signal if the weapon points at anything else than the centre of the target's radar cross section. Most weapons employ proportional navigation, due to the nature of the guidance, this allows for all aspect, typically head-on kills. W hen the target is within the lethal radius of the weapon's warhead, a proximity fuse, usually radar, detonates the warhead, commonly a high explosive/fragmentation type (the timing of the fuse is critical, an Israeli F-4E failed to kill a Syrian Foxbat in a head-on, snapup AIM-7 attack simply because the missile, fused for targets travelling at transonic speeds, detonated after passing the Mach 3 MiG, failing to cause any damage) and destroys the target. Most weapons have miss distances of the order of metres, though the Skyflash has apparently narrowed that down to the order of a metre. The most important factor determining a semi-active guided weapon's lethality is its tracking accuracy and ability to discriminate between the target's return and ground clutter. Earlier weapons employed conical scan seekers, however newer systems rather use monopulse seekers, as these are more accurate and resist jamming better, though at the expense of added complexity.
This phase difference is proportional (for small errors) to the error angle between the target and missile axis and may be easily detected by the electronics. On the other hand, though, any drift in the receivers which could alter the signal's phase during processing would generate a false error signal. A practical system would employ four receivers, two for each axis. Each of these two receivers would drive a phase detector, which would generate the given error signals. These would be subsequently fed into computers, to find the required control deflections. Monopulse systems, such as the Skyflash seeker, are very accurate and resist jamming. Good clutter rejection allows snap-down attacks on targets as low as 250 ft, test trials of
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com
the Skyflash were very successful, with several direct impact kills.
Locker Repair
Save money by repairing your lockers rather than replacing them
americanofficeservices.com
Artwork, graphic design, layout and text 2004 - 2012 Carlo Kopp; Text 2004 - 2012 Peter Goon; All rights reserved. Recommended browsers. Contact webmaster. Site navigation hints. Current hot topics. Site Update Status: $Revision: 1.727 $ Site History: Notices and Updates / NLA Pandora Archive
Save Page as PDF
Tweet 0 Follow @APA_Updates
Select Language
Powered by
Translate
converted by Web2PDFConvert.com