MirageBlue
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So you telling me an awacs is unable to locate a bogey for the f16 Blk50/52 and the f16 pilot is unable to fire an AMRAAM c7 at the location of the bogey from say 120km away? Just because the radar is 105km detection range doesn't mean the missile is limited to said range.
The AMRAAM is a ARH missile. It has its own radar which gives it the fire and forget capability. Not to mention how the radar itself can guide it upto say 105km then the missiles radar will guide onto the bogey for the next 15km.
That's how it works for the AMRAAM and that's how it works for the pl15.
The AMRAAM first has to be guided by the radar up to a certain distance by the F-16's onboard radar.
First, the target has to be detected and tracked by the F-16. After that, if fired in LOBL (Lock On Before Launch) mode, the target's coordinates are handed over to the missile by the F-16's onboard mission computer. The missile then uses the datalink and onboard INS to guide itself to a predicted position where the target may be based on it's onboard guidance algorithms..finally, only about 10-15 km from the target, it switches it's onboard radar on to find the target.
So for a F-16 to use the full capability of AIM-120C7 or AIM-120D missile, it's onboard radar must be able to track the bogey first. If the bogey is beyond the detection range of the F-16's radar, it cannot be detected and definitely not tracked. So how can it do any of the other steps required to compute the firing solution for the AMRAAM?