If modern missiles can track targets from beyond visual range, how do their operators verify that they’ve acquired the targets they’re looking for?

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If modern missiles can track targets from beyond visual range, how do their operators verify that they’ve acquired the targets they’re looking for?

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Most modern missiles fired from beyond visual range aren’t tracking anything, not for most of the flight, that is. The missiles are receiving their targeting data via telemetry, which oftentimes (especially when the firing platform is a stealth aircraft) isn’t even coming from the firing aircraft. The missiles can receive their telemetry from any platform that has the necessary communication links.

The reason for this is simple: the second you light off a radar, *everyone* knows you’re there.

Patrols, strikes, escorts, etc. all want to be as stealthy as possibly, so while they *do* have onboard radars they usually won’t turn them on if they don’t have to while in potentially hostile airspace. A lot of times the carrier or it’s escorts likely won’t have them on, either, if there’s a possibility the battle group might come under fire.

Now, obviously you can’t hide the fact that a carrier group is in the area, but you *can* keep everyone from knowing where, exactly, it is and therefore limit its exposure to cruise missiles. That’s done by launching an E-2 Hawkeye, a propjob aircraft with a BIG radar dish on top. These bad boys fly away from the carrier group a bit and fire up their big ass radar, and send all of the information from that thing back to the battle group, to friendly aircraft, etc. via encrypted radio links.

*That’s* the bird that is doing the targeting. It’s feeding the bearing, distance, elevation, airspeed, and direction of travel of potential targets to everyone else. A friendly aircraft can take that information, relay it to the missile, and fire the missile all without emitting a signal of it’s own. The missile rockets off and glides most of the way to its target, then switches on it’s own radar for terminal guidance.

Take note, that it is entirely possible that this is the first moment the targeted aircraft had any idea it was being targeted, let alone shot at. It may not have even been aware of other aircraft in the vicinity.

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