Eli5 How does detection of an incoming missile on aircraft work?
In: Technology
You can detect:
A super fast thing coming to you way using Doppler radar. But the missile is tiny, this system really gonna cost money.
The missile engine is pretty hot, you can detect it with IR sensors, problem is that the missile is facing you, so the engine is shadowed, and the missile engine is actually on at launch, but can shut down due to lack of fuel at long range, and still be fast enough to hit you. So the above Doppler detection is better.
A radar lock missile by listening to its radar with a receiver, it’s costly but doable on large scale.
Laser aiming, by a sensor that senses you are illuminated by such laser (mostly used on helicopters and slow flying things) it’s pretty cheap.
The most difficult to detect are IR missiles, they do not emit anything. See point 1-2 to how to see them.
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