Radar Locks and HAFU's!

Help me out, experts. My DCS journey is going well. The current learning curve centres around A/A. Many videos watched and digested. I'm still not 100% clear tho - still experimenting!

If I have a HAFU, I can't lock it up - presumably because the info is coming from another source (AWACS etc). That would be logical.

(As a matter of interest, pressing designate on a HAFU looks to me like it's designating the FLIR designation in snow plough mode even though the FLIR is turned off and not in AG mode? It designates something but certainly not the HAFU!)

So, I understand that I need a "brick" in order to lock. I can get the altitude from SA and direct the radar to that point. The question is this - does the HAFU automatically become a "brick" when the target is painted by your own radar? Or to put it another way, whats the process of locking a HAFU? It needs to be "un'HAFU'd" in order to establish the lock as I understand it.

:)

No, you don't need bricks. I really recommend to take a look at the manual (page 243-247 in the current version) as it explains all the various HAFU symbols (with pictures) and their exact meaning ;)

Also, if you have a donor hafu and nothing from your own radar it's your 101 cue to check radar elevation.

Also, if you have a donor hafu and nothing from your own radar it's your 101 cue to check radar elevation.

Indeed, wrong radar antenna elevation is the most common user mistake when unsucessfully attempting to obtain a lock on a target that is provided by offboard designation.

To explain - when I have HAFU on the radar - designate won't select it. It will do so for bricks of course.

I sometimes lock the tanker to make the rendezvous for gas, for example. If it's a HAFU, I can't lock it. If it's a brick, I can.

Bricks are always onboard sensor contacts.

HAFUs can be either onboard or offboard. Which it is depends on the symbology displayed. See https://wiki.hoggitworld.com/view/F/A-18C#HAFU

Basically, the top half of the symbol represents onboard sensors. If the top half is missing, it is datalink-only and your radar cannot see it currently. And if the bottom half is missing, only your sensors see the target. The exception (weirdly, imo) is hostile tracks, which are a small empty diamond (full top and bottom half) when transmitted by datalink but you haven't picked it up yet. When your sensors pick up a confirmed hostile target, it has a number inside the HAFU indicating its priority. That's how you know for sure.

So you see a HAFU but it isn't picked up by your radar. Now what? Go to your SA page and cursor over the contact to see its altitude. Then change antenna elevation on the radar to pick it up.

To explain - when I have HAFU on the radar - designate won't select it. It will do so for bricks of course.

It depends on the HAFU symbol. There are many different HAFU symbols, that indicate if the contact comes from your own sensors, offboard sensors or both. That's why I really recommend you to take a look at the different HAFU symbols in the manual as I said in my first response ;)

Bricks represent raw returns, but can also contain MSI info and if you TUC them or designate them, they'll immediately show the "hidden" HAFU and associated track info. This is because the F-18 builds and displays track files, when possible. Normally, bricks represent contacts detected only by you, to differentiate them, and for everything else, you get the appropriate HAFU symbol.

There's currently a bug where any contact detected by you is shown as a brick, regardless if it's also donated.

Thanks for all your responses. Testing continues :)

Ah. The problems I've been experiencing can be seen here (in the latter stages of the video);

..... and a variety of solutions can be found in the responses!!

Well, don't forget that video is almost a year old (and is fairly long, so "the latter stages" could be anywhere), a lot has changed under the hood since then.

There are also easy and quick ways of distinguishing whether a target is detected by your radar or not.

First of all, targets which aren't detected by your own radar have their symbol slightly smaller.

Secondly, you can place the TDC over the target symbol. If additional data shows up (speed/altitude/shooting cue) you can lock it up. If not then your radar can't see it.