Beam riding: an explanantion

I was teaching a buddy how to fly recently and he had questions about how exactly beam riding works. I threw these together. They are correct to the best of my knowledge. Anything I got wrong?

P.S. ED please add buddy lasing for Su-25T and other birds! Please!

Nice! Very good presentation -- and I second your notion to include buddy-lasing. :)

Believe buddy lasing between Sharks and Frogs is not possible due to different laser types/codes.

If memory serves me right that is, which isn't often.

 

If memory serves me right that is, which isn't often.

there are 3 or 4 different laser code setting in the KA-50 that you can change but i am unsure if its implemented or not

IIRC it's not a cone. It's just a beam.

IIRC it's not a cone. It's just a beam.

A cube/grid for the Vikhr and a beam for the 25ML, ie two different laser projections for the two respective missiles.

there are 3 or 4 different laser code setting in the KA-50 that you can change but i am unsure if its implemented or not

It is not implemented. That being said, it's the same missile type being loaded on both aircraft, isn't it? Couldn't you theoretically have a Su-25T loaded up with a missile configured for Shark guidance?

IIRC it's not a cone. It's just a beam.

pp.311 in the Ka-50 manual uses the terminology "control zone", which is created by scanning 2 lasers along the horizontal and vertical axes. This zone is 7m in radius 100m in front of the helicopter and narrows as the missile travels further.

Regarding beam riding missile, assuming Vikhr is using same techniques as occidental ones (or vice versa), the principle is that the laser is projecting a grid centered on the target. A receiver at the back of the missile can read its position on the grid regarding this center and correct its trajectory accordingly. Now since the grid is getting larger as the distance increase, a lens in front of the laser is driven by "time since launch" to make sure the scale of the grid, from the missile point of view, stays about the same no matter the distance.

Last time we used the laser code on Black Shark with my squad to perform simultaneous attacks with Kh25 on several ships, I remember it was a working feature. If two choppers had the same laser code, very often the Kh25 was locking on the wrong target resulting in an overkill.