How do aircraft/fighter jets know that they are being locked on by an anti aircraft system or by another fighter jet?
In: 2036
A normal search radar is like a lighthouse light. It just sweeps the entire area in a regular fashion, sending out radio waves and listening for the bounce-back to see if there’s anything there. Fighters will have sensors onboard that can detect those waves, so they know they are being scanned.
A lock-on radar will be scanning much more intently and more frequently, since it is trying to provide a lot of data for the weapon system to accurately track the target. So when the fighter’s sensors detect that the radio waves are much stronger and happening much more frequently, it knows that someone isn’t just scanning the area anymore; they’re looking for something specifically, probably the fighter.
With regard to whether it’s a surface-to-air missile or another fighter, the designers of the weapon systems have to make different compromises for each. A fighter’s radar set has to be lightweight and compact so that it doesn’t weigh the jet down too much, while a ground-deployed system can be truck or van sized with no problem. That creates differences in how the radar waves are generated, which are detectable by the sensor. Additionally, electronic warfare involves “eavesdropping” on other countries’ fighters/anti-aircraft radar emissions to see what they look like (it’s not really eavesdropping, since they’re basically broadcasting the radar waves, so listening in is free). That way, they can build up data for future reference; if they see a radar signature that looks like X, they know that it comes from a surface-to-air missile system and not a jet.
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