Jester and STT lock

Hi - I am having real problems getting Jester to do an STT Lock. Every time I have a target ahead and request a lock under the Jester menu he says “no can do”. Any ideas?

Lessen range and you need to be at or below the target

Lessen range and you need to be at or below the target

Wait what!?!? Seriously?? So if I am flying higher than the target I can’t do an STT lock? Why would that be?

You need to study basic radar theory to understand what’s happening here. There’s more to it than can be explained in a forum. In short STT is a pulse mode. If you’re above the target ground clutter from the pulse returns can prevent or cause loss of the lock.

You need to study basic radar theory to understand what’s happening here. There’s more to it than can be explained in a forum. In short STT is a pulse mode. If you’re above the target ground clutter from the pulse returns can prevent or cause loss of the lock.

Okay but f i can see it on my radar should I not be able to lock on? Furthermore does it not have look down shoot down capabilities?

That's not entirely true

The F-14 does have a pulse doppler filter, allowing it to look down and shoot down, but considering it's 60's tech, that filter has a considerably larger window it can be notched in, than modern radars.

Without getting into it too much, if you have someone on radar in TWS, and jester fails to get an STT lock, you should probably get closer, but that's not because of the doppler filter. Most of the time, the radar return simply isnt large enough for the radar to track well. It doesnt happend often with large aircraft, but i did find myself loosing locks often on fighter sized targets from 30-40+ nm. I can lock them fine under 20nm, but when i m firing further, i usually use and reccomend TWS phoenix

Lessen range and you need to be at or below the target

It is very much possible to lock targets below you, if they have a high closing speed.

yeah. i try to put my nose down a bit when looking for a radar acquisition. Wait for the top part of the diamond ( your 14s radar) to show. it the top of the diamond is showing, means you have ability for lock. if its the bottom data link source only showing, your 14 isnt picking it up. thats where the nose down helps...slowly work it to -5 degree pitch and give it a sec. it should pick it up.

in TWS, you want to follow the same radar steps to keep them TWS acquired. you want to keep that top indicator of the diamond showing, even after missle launch. if you can steer her to keep them Radar acquired, thats gonna give your phoenixes the best chance. if the top portion of the bogey symbol dissapears, the missles tracking dont know where to look and start to slow down slightly for an aqquire from the tomcat. if you can stt him, that still guides the semi active missle to target, or even the active missle to target. A human RIO has a easier time holding him when he starts dancing, but if you keep the TV on him, you can still get an exact idea where he is with the pipper, so you can manually steer your Locking radar to him.

also your closure aspect helps. the small numbers on the bottom left for alt range, if it isnt too dangerous ill try to get 5000 feet below his altitude at 30-40 miles ( unless its below 15000). that way either TWS or STT has ability to 1)find him 2)hold the lock. if hes locked and your within 20 miles, the guy usually starts diving, so that altitude difference is enough to keep him hot and just mirror his descent using the TV.

1 target, stt at 40 miles, launch at 35, turn tv on, watch missle indicator on tid. if missle tracks and hits, win. missle tracks and goes pitbull(Pitbull is when the long line on the phoenix touches the target and i think it says ACT or something. RIO can also let you know that one too) hes defensive. hes either gonna get hit with the phoenix, or open himself up to you at 5-10 miles if you pursue him. sparrow range or phoenix with acm switch flipped up so she comes off the rails quick, straight to pitbull. if you drop lock within 20 miles, use your pilot radar modes to get him back. if you can keep him on the defensive within 15 miles, usually opens a large window to do your work safely. TV screen is great cause you can see his exact moves, and also spot missles coming off him to start defending.

im tired

That isn't the behavior I notice. For me, Jester will try to lock the target and lose lock immediately if he cannot find/keep an STT lock and say "Lost lock" or something along those lines. There are some limitations to the radar, but I find it fairly easy to grab a lock as long as they aren't beaming you or flying the same speed away from you.

If you are trying "Lock Enemy Ahead" and he hasn't verified the aircraft as enemy he might say "no can do", or if the target is a DL target he might not be able to STT lock it because it isn't on is radar scope.

From my side I've met this problem with Jaster when asked him to lock the enemy target. He denied to do it.

But at the same time if I asked him to lock the targed ahead (not used "enemy" word in Jester's communications menu) he did it without any problems.

Looks like it is connected to IFF realization.

Until Jester can't confirm that the target ahead is your enemy he couldn't call it as enemy.

So, in that case, he couldn't lock it as "enemy target ahead" but could lock it as just "target ahead".

But it is what I saw in my case.

From my side I've met this problem with Jaster when asked him to lock the enemy target. He denied to do it.

But at the same time if I asked him to lock the targed ahead (not used "enemy" word in Jester's communications menu) he did it without any problems.

Looks like it is connected to IFF realization.

Until Jester can't confirm that the target ahead is your enemy he couldn't call it as enemy.

So, in that case he couldn't lock it as "enemy target ahead" but could lock it as just "target ahead".

 

But it is what I saw in my case.

Of course, if you tell him to lock an enemy and the only contact he has is a bogey, then he can't comply.

Iron Mike explained that in another thread:

Jester does neither switch distance nor elevation manually. We are waiting until TWS AUTO will be complete (which will mitigate for a lot of that) and then see where we need to fill his gaps. In the meantime you need to fly foreseeing, what elevation and range settings you will need ahead and tell him to switch when need. Once I get closer I go to auto elevation and rather point my nose.

 

As for the no can do: this means your AWG-9 does not track the contact well enough for him to lock it. Or often simple errors like: "lock enemy target ahead" before it is IFF-ed, will cause an "unable" reply, because there is no enemy contact for him on the screen. These things need to be observed as well, for example, if it is a bogey, just tell him to "lock target ahead" instead of enemy and so on. And help him with your aspect work to get a favourable view with the radar. Once you breach 20nm, prepare to transition to the PAL latest at 15nm, and within 5nm then to VSL or PLM.

That isn't the behavior I notice. For me, Jester will try to lock the target and lose lock immediately if he cannot find/keep an STT lock and say "Lost lock" or something along those lines. There are some limitations to the radar, but I find it fairly easy to grab a lock as long as they aren't beaming you or flying the same speed away from you.

 

If you are trying "Lock Enemy Ahead" and he hasn't verified the aircraft as enemy he might say "no can do", or if the target is a DL target he might not be able to STT lock it because it isn't on is radar scope.

Problem solved. Thank you. I always tell him to lock enemy ahead rather than target ahead leading to a no can do reply. Thanks!

Problem solved. Thank you. I always tell him to lock enemy ahead rather than target ahead leading to a no can do reply. Thanks!

Great! We will also take a second look at his IFF, which atm seems to be rather slow at times.

His IFF is poor, Quick question, If he IFF's a friendly and the IFF is highlighted white and he IFF's target and thats white and you fox 3 in TWS would it not go for the friendly? Or did he prioritise first?

His IFF is poor, Quick question, If he IFF's a friendly and the IFF is highlighted white and he IFF's target and thats white and you fox 3 in TWS would it not go for the friendly? Or did he prioritise first?

Not sure about your question but as soon as a track is marked as friendly it's dropped from the target prios removing it as a target for the AIM-54. If this happens after launch then it's too late.

You answered it yea you need him to wait for priority before launch, Its a horrible feeling if he does not do that and goodnight friendly. Wanted to make sure because even tho he priorities targets he does not drop the friendly at all and that worries me.

You answered it yea you need him to wait for priority before launch, Its a horrible feeling if he does not do that and goodnight friendly. Wanted to make sure because even tho he priorities targets he does not drop the friendly at all and that worries me.

It's not Jester that drops it, the WCS itself should remove the track from the queue as soon as it's marked as friendly. That said it's actually not that straightforward even for a human RIO to work the IFF in TWS as you have to correlate the DDD screen between IFF returns displayed in range and normal returns displayed by rate.

You answered it yea you need him to wait for priority before launch, Its a horrible feeling if he does not do that and goodnight friendly. Wanted to make sure because even tho he priorities targets he does not drop the friendly at all and that worries me.

There might be a missunderstanding here: The RIO does not do any prioritization work. It's the AWG-9 itself which assigns the priorities. The RIO can take tracks out of the prioritization queue by declaring them as friendlies, but the remaining bogeys and bandits still get their priorities assigned by the AWG-9.

Ok i see so even if the friendly is IFFed and is highlighted white on the TID, The system will ignore it.