Chapter 106 The Powerful AWG-9

Under such sea conditions, the flight quality of an early warning aircraft carrying a large plate on top of it was even more unacceptable, especially the risk of landing was very high. Moreover, the Tomcat's own radar was also quite powerful, so the wing commander, Colonel Ted, only ejected two Tomcats.

It was easy to use two powerful Tomcat fighters to monitor a slow-moving Soviet Tu-95 reconnaissance aircraft. Moreover, if the navy guys had some other tricks, it was within the acceptable range for Ted and others.

The most powerful force of an aircraft carrier formation is its carrier-based aircraft! The two flying Tomcat fighters are both equipped with air superiority capabilities.

The iconic weapon of the Tomcat fighter is the Phoenix missile! This large missile is 3.96 meters long and 380 mm in diameter, weighing half a ton! Conventional aerodynamic layout, near the center rear of the missile body there are four fixed control surfaces extending to the tail of the missile, behind these four wing surfaces are four rectangular control surfaces, the range is up to more than 100 kilometers!

However, since this type of missile is too heavy, if it is mounted according to the long-range interception method and each fighter is equipped with six Phoenix missiles, the maneuverability of the Tomcat fighter will be seriously reduced. Moreover, if the missiles are not launched during the mission, two expensive Phoenix missiles will have to be discarded when returning to the aircraft carrier, because the Tomcat fighter can only carry a maximum of four Phoenix missiles when landing on the aircraft carrier.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, Tomcat fighters will not be majestically equipped with Phoenix missiles. The two Tomcat fighters now only carry two Phoenix missiles, two Sparrow missiles and two Sidewinder missiles.

At this time, two fighter jets catapulted from the aircraft carrier, turned on the engine afterburner at the tail, swept the wings back, and began to sprint quickly for a long-range interception mission!

At this time, hundreds of kilometers in the sky, a bright spot was still displayed on the radar, and this bright spot was constantly moving towards the exercise area of ​​the US aircraft carrier.

During the Cold War, this kind of confrontation was very common. When the two countries were conducting exercises, they would often be harassed by the other side. For example, when the Soviet Navy was conducting exercises in the Baltic Sea, even the Soviet Navy's frigates had to use the method of squeezing their hulls to prevent American warships from getting too close.

At this time, on the two Tomcat fighters, the pilots were flying according to the target directions indicated by the ground radar station, and in the rear cockpit of the Tomcat fighters, the weapons operator was operating in an orderly manner.

Because the launch of the Phoenix missile is too cumbersome, in order to allow pilots to focus on air combat, the Tomcat fighters are all two-seater systems, with a weapons operator in the rear cabin who is specifically responsible for controlling the powerful AWG-9 radar and Phoenix missile system.

Turn on the radar and scan the airspace ahead in PDS mode. At the same time, pre-power on the Phoenix missile and make preparations for launch, so that there will be no rush in case a launch is really necessary.

A bright spot soon appeared on the radar screen.

Like the Cyclone A radar, the AWG-9 radar weighs half a ton, but this half ton is the total weight of the entire radar system, while radars such as the Cyclone-A are net weights, excluding the weight of the cooling system, etc. Moreover, weight is not proportional to performance. The flat slot antenna of the AWG-9 radar can better radiate the radar beam, reduce side lobes, increase scanning frequency, and improve efficiency. At the same time, the receiver uses a large number of solid components, including crystal filters and low-noise parametric amplifiers, and flexible high-capacity computers.

AWG-9 is a completely digital computer. Many computer fans know this computer, which is the 8-bit digital processor of Intel8080! This thing may sound backward now, but at that time, this processor was simply invincible. The radar processing system written in assembly language allows the radar to process signals in various ways, giving AWG-9 seven modes!

Comparing the most critical parameters, the maximum power of this radar is only 8 kilowatts, but it can achieve such a powerful performance, while the peak power of the Cyclone-A radar is 600 kilowatts! The power is large, but it is all dissipated in the form of heat, and not much effective energy is used in the radar beam.

At this time, with the radar running at full power, in PDS mode, the AWG-9 radar has a maximum detection distance of 300 kilometers for large targets such as strategic bombers. At this time, aimed at the scanning airspace, the radar quickly captured the large reconnaissance aircraft that was coming towards it for investigation.

"The target has been found at the twelve o'clock direction, about three hundred kilometers away." said the weapons operator in the rear cabin.

PDS mode is pulse Doppler search, which is a search state that works in pulse mode and uses the Doppler effect. At this time, it is like a big flashlight, used to see if there is a target in the airspace 65 degrees ahead. In addition to obtaining target position information, there is no altitude, speed, and other parameters, and it is impossible to guide the missile to attack.

However, this mode has the longest detection distance. It can detect a target as large as a Tu-95 or B-52 strategic bomber at a distance of 300 kilometers. Therefore, the PDS mode is mainly used to illuminate the way and is a mode often used by Tomcat fighters during combat cruise.

After a few seconds of stable tracking, the weapons operator in the rear cabin continued to report: "Prepare to switch to PDSTT mode."

PDSTT, a condom is put on PDS, which means continuous tracking. The radar's working mode is still in pulse Doppler mode, but the scanning mode will be changed. According to the operator's instructions, one of the intercepted targets will be selected to enter continuous tracking.

At this time, the radar antenna is in a fixed state, and all radar beams are radiated towards distant targets, without wasting beams in other airspaces. It is like adding a focusing lens to the flashlight, turning the flashlight light into a laser.

Keep your eyes on the target and get ready to fire!

As the radar beam continues to radiate and return, the target's parameter information is calculated by the fire control system and fully presented on the radar screen.

"Distance 200, altitude 16,000, speed 800." The weapons operator in the rear cabin continued to report.

Since the intercepted target information is complete at this time, it can fully support the fire control system to launch AIM-54 missiles. The tracking distance of this PDSTT is the maximum engagement distance of the AWG-9/AIM-54 system. For targets with obvious radar reflection signals, such as Tu-95 and B-52, the tracking distance of PDSTT exceeds 200 kilometers; if the opponent is a fighter, such as a MiG-25, the tracking distance can reach 150 kilometers, which is exactly the maximum distance of the Phoenix missile.

If this system were installed on a MiG-25 fighter, Andre would be so excited that he would not be able to sleep.

At this time, George in the front cabin was a little puzzled after hearing the report from the pilot in the rear cabin. The altitude was 16,000? According to the data we already had, if it was a Tu-95, this type of aircraft was a propeller aircraft! In previous reconnaissance, this type of aircraft was rarely found flying at an altitude of more than 12,000! Now, the opponent's altitude was 16,000, which was a bit strange?

"Altitude 18,000, speed 900." The weapons operator in the rear cabin continued to report. At this time, the hearts of both of them were filled with anxiety. Damn, it might not be the Tu-95 that came!