RWR Nails chirps

Generally the RWR gives the pilot audio pitch that correlates to the frequency of the scan and the PRF of the radar (with increasing PRF represented by higher frequency tones and higher volume alerts) for instance:

Search radar: low tone and infrequent chirps

Radar lock (spike): higher pitch, steady warble

Launch: very high pitch, loud rapid modulating alert

Missile: highest pitch, highest volume, and highest frequency modulating alert

This leads to my question. Would an RWR distinguish between a radar that is in a wide scan (say the F/A-18C's 6B/140° max scan pattern) and a narrower meld scan (say a 2B/60°) pattern? A max scan pattern takes approximately 13 seconds to finish, while the 2B/60° scan takes only about 1 second to finish. Each full scan would send radar energy over your jet at least once, so the RWR would detect the narrow scan 13 times more frequently than the wide scan.

This information would be useful to the pilot since you would know that the enemy is possibly tracking you in a TWS mode or at least is focusing on the airspace that you are in and trying to detect you. To that end, it would make sense that RWRs would let pilots know this information. My first guess is that since the PRF is the same as a wide scan, the "nails" sound would just play at a more rapid rate and the clock/threat position would update more frequently on the RWR instrument.

Does anyone have any insight how how the RWR decides to report radars in search mode and display the visual and audio cues? Is there a "timeout" built in so that the nails sound doesn't play too often? Or does it just ignore a higher frequency of search PRF energy? Or perhaps have sims just never modeled this feature?

...

Search radar: low tone and infrequent chirps

Radar lock (spike): higher pitch, steady warble

Launch: very high pitch, loud rapid modulating alert

Missile: highest pitch, highest volume, and highest frequency modulating alert

...

hmmmmm....:smilewink:

As I understand it the RWRs in-game are already 'too good' with respect to anything that isn't in STT.

So the answer to your question would be 'probably not', but there are caveats. As for 'why not' ... For one, it is expected to be operating in a signal-dense environment, and how are you going to know which chirps belong to what? The information you're seeking is also not that important - you're on his radar, he's TWS capable. Run appropriate tactics.

As for your description ... there doesn't need to be any PRF difference between nails/stt/launch ;)

Does anyone have any insight how how the RWR decides to report radars in search mode and display the visual and audio cues? Is there a "timeout" built in so that the nails sound doesn't play too often? Or does it just ignore a higher frequency of search PRF energy? Or perhaps have sims just never modeled this feature?

Agreed that the RWRs are too good. I disagree that the information wouldn't be useful though. If you have multiple threats and one is hitting you with a scan capable of tracking you versus another that isn't, that changes the way I would prioritize that threat. Whether or not the technology could exist is beyond my level of understanding of the relevant SIGINT/physics.

All scans are capable of tracking you ... in fact that's exactly what they're doing. A track that's good enough for a firing solution is another thing - but the issue isn't just one of what you can sense, but how are you going to pass this information on?

If you think about it, it could just be RWS doing a fast sweep - in fact, at least the -63 will speed up the sweep significantly when you drop the VSD range to 40 or 20 or less (don't quote me on 40, but definitely 20 or less).

You could have a missile uplink signal from the same radar to help make a decision, but then your entire flight might think they're being launched on.

So no, the information isn't useful because it is ambiguous. You already know what type of aircraft it is and what it can do - run appropriate tactics. I mean, why are you waiting on the RWR to tell you how to prioritize this threat? You reaction to this thing is decided before you even step into the aircraft.

So no, the information isn't useful because it is ambiguous. You already know what type of aircraft it is and what it can do - run appropriate tactics. I mean, why are you waiting on the RWR to tell you how to prioritize this threat? You reaction to this thing is decided before you even step into the aircraft.

Not all BVR scenarios are a small flight vs. flight engagement against a known opponent with a known position. The chaos of combat can see multiple opponents coming from multiple vectors at unknown locations. Because modern BVR tactics specify a meld and sort inside of tactical range there is a much higher likelihood that an aircraft with a narrow scan pattern is closer to you and has melded, sorted, and is about to launch or has launched. An aircraft still in a wide search cannot do that (at least with the PD radars modeled in DCS atm). Knowing that information is useful. Knowing that an aircraft is TWS capable is also useful, but that doesn't make other SA enhancing information not useful.

You're reading too much into it. I never said I'm "waiting" on the RWR. I have run missions in both PvP and PvE in Many v Many BVR scenarios over many years of combat flight simming and have seen situations where this information would have been useful. Just because you don't doesn't mean it isn't.

It all depends on the type of RWR.

Some RWRs provide PRF audio, which means the pilot/RIO can hear it all. They can hear exactly what the radars doing in terms of scan, as well as hear PRF and PRF modulations which can help distinguish the radar type. So yes, hypothetically they could hear a radar change its scan time due to the scan width changing. Though they wouldn't know if the enemy switched to TWS or just lowered their azimuth/bar scan.

However, sometimes PRF audio fails the pilot. For example, High PRF tones are too high for the human ear. Same is mostly true for CW signals, like missile illumination. Thus, synthetic tones have taken over in many instances.

Low and Medium PRFs can be heard though. I'm currently working on PRF tones that I'd like to incorporate into the Viggen, A-10C, and hopefully the upcoming F-16.