BON - Do Radar Vehicles track Planes?

[IckyATLAS]

I wonder if the German radars would track a target like plane.

This means that they can rotate and move the dish to track a target.

I made a US plane P38 fly at 4'000 meters distance and 500mt high from this radar to do a test.

The radar was a vehicle and linked entity with German nationality.

The radar does not move. But it is a vehicle so I suppose it should move otherwise it would be a block object.

How can I animate the radar?

Here below is the radar used in the test:

[2./JG3_Nicholas404]

Maybe with "atack area" ?!

[Jaegermeister]

My understanding before release is that it turns until an enemy object comes within range, then it locks in place facing the EAC.
 

I have not tested it post update because I have no computer/sim access for another 2 weeks while out of my home country. All I can do is lurk on my phone, haha.

[=AD=uumembwa]

with attack area it start rotating, but atm no another functions finded...

[IckyATLAS]

I have done some test with the radar as in the picture above and indeed with the attack area it does track the plane. In fact, the radar will rotate left right, and the dish will also rotate up-down.

The radar will detect planes at a distance which will depend on the radius of the area (That german radar had a 44mile detection capability but probably for large targets) and the altitude of the target. I tested with a sole P38 coming from the channel. Under 500 mt no detection. At 600mt detection at about 3-4 kilometers. At 2500 mt detection is at 15 km. Maybe with larger targets like a B25 or a multiple fighters detection comes earlier. I have to test that.

 

Tested with swarm of 6 x B26 and 6 x P38 and indeed detection is much earlier.

And the way the radar behaves is very well done, because it turns at constant speed passes the sight line of the incoming aircraft and after a few seconds later, stops rotating and reverses rotation to come back on the target and then stops and starts tracking and moving according to the target.

All this is very realistic. Excellent, well done devs.

 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2022 by IckyATLAS

[DN308]

Thanks for the tests.

Do you have any logic to make it usable with a Flak net for example or to scramble an ENY air patrol?

[352ndOscar]

The radar pictured is a Wurzburg type using primarily used for anti-aircraft gun-laying.  The other radar type in the game is the Freya type which is primarily used in IFF roles.  Neither of these radar objects has any kind of associated scripting that makes them operate as they most likely would have.  You would need to do one of two types of scripts, either a script that detects and displays aircraft on the GUI map, or, a script that detects and displays an on-screen message that locates the aircraft.  Just know that the radar objects included in the objects added to the map “do not do anything” - they’re just there to look pretty.

Edited October 16, 2022 by 352ndOscar

[IckyATLAS]

12 hours ago, 352ndOscar said:

The radar pictured is a Wurzburg type using primarily used for anti-aircraft gun-laying.  The other radar type in the game is the Freya type which is primarily used in IFF roles.  Neither of these radar objects has any kind of associated scripting that makes them operate as they most likely would have.  You would need to do one of two types of scripts, either a script that detects and displays aircraft on the GUI map, or, a script that detects and displays an on-screen message that locates the aircraft.  Just know that the radar objects included in the objects added to the map “do not do anything” - they’re just there to look pretty.

I have no idea how to display aircraft on the GUI map. But to display an on-screen message to locate the aircraft, approx distance and even approx altitude that would be easy to do (easy but long and tedious), even if you need to use a lot of Check Zones of the Cylindrical and Spherical type and Subtitles. I just do not see the need for angle, distance and altitude information in a mission, simply because you cannot direct the AAA guns in that specific way. Just being detected is enough and then you can set the AAA guns to Low Priority with Force Complete which will make them more reactive and firing at maximum rate. Other than that I see nothing possible with what I know of the Editor.

 

The type of mission where I see the interest in displaying a message about detection, would be in a mission were you have to avoid radar detection as an objective, and you fail by getting the message that you have been detected. This brings up a question to me:

 

Could the fighter or bomber pilots of WWII at least in 1944 know if they had been detected by a radar. Did they have an instrument in the cockpit that could have warned them, kind of light or sound signal. I don't think so, but I learn new things every day. If yes then it does make sense to display a message, otherwise you will know it if you get a barrage of AA fire, or at the end of your mission when you land back at the base when you get the message that the non-detection objective was failed. This last case seems to me more realistic.

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by IckyATLAS

[DN308]

The main difficulty is when your AI refuse to fly lower than 300m, I don’t know why

[PhilthySpud]

On 10/17/2022 at 5:48 PM, IckyATLAS said:

Could the fighter or bomber pilots of WWII at least in 1944 know if they had been detected by a radar. Did they have an instrument in the cockpit that could have warned them, kind of light or sound signal.

 

For the most part, no. Some specialist aircraft and some British heavy bombers did have various forms of RWR.

[saldy]

It also works for multiplayer?

[Sketch]

3 hours ago, saldy said:

It also works for multiplayer?

Yes, all the MCUs work for both single and multiplayer.

[56RAF_Stickz]

On 10/18/2022 at 9:52 AM, PhilthySpud said:

For the most part, no. Some specialist aircraft and some British heavy bombers did have various forms of RWR.

thats not entirely correct - the british pilots were able to "hear" radar scanning them as a buzz over the radio as it scanned. There is mention of this occasionally in books - one of the meditteranean air war volumes mentioned it. Obviously this doesnt mean they had actually been detected. Presumably german pilots could have heard ours similarly. Particularly as british chain home high system was operating at 30Mhz (nowaday thats HF radio frequency). This was really just a side effect because radio and radar (unlike most modern cases or even by wars end) used very similar frequencies during early war (if memory serves me coirrectly, freya radar used 100MHz to 150Mhz).

[PhilthySpud]

14 hours ago, 56RAF_Stickz said:

thats not entirely correct - the british pilots were able to "hear" radar scanning them as a buzz over the radio as it scanned. There is mention of this occasionally in books - one of the meditteranean air war volumes mentioned it. Obviously this doesnt mean they had actually been detected. Presumably german pilots could have heard ours similarly. Particularly as british chain home high system was operating at 30Mhz (nowaday thats HF radio frequency). This was really just a side effect because radio and radar (unlike most modern cases or even by wars end) used very similar frequencies during early war (if memory serves me coirrectly, freya radar used 100MHz to 150Mhz).

Obviously anybody could hear transmissions with a receiver tuned to the same frequency as the radar, but that’s not the same thing as an RWR, which is what the question was about.

[56RAF_Stickz]

Without trying to make an argument about it, what he said was, "was a pilot aware they had been detected". An RWR doesnt necessarily tell you that you have been detected either, only once it determines that you are being tracked can it directly tell that (prf change, more regular paints, frequency sweep changing etc), there is no guarantee that the signal strength that an RWR receives that once reflected is enough for the radar receiver to retrieve it from background noise.  It has no indication of range to work from and that signal still has to return to sender.  

Whilst it is unlikely back then that your average pilot would be aware of such nuances, but if a freya detected you and was stopped rotatating to paint you to get a track for a while the radio could tell you the same thing from the continous received "buzz" as they seem to describe it, instead of every scan. But the few allied pilots reports Ive read of certainly suggest that once they heard it, they assumed they were now picked up and reacted how ever they had been primed to.

[TP_Silk]

On 10/17/2022 at 7:48 AM, IckyATLAS said:

I have no idea how to display aircraft on the GUI map.

 

Set the radar object to 'spotter' and then set an appropriate radius? I've used this on occasion for playing around.