In movies and video games, fighter jets and other similar vehicles need to chase their opponent and have them in target long enough to get a lock on, but why can’t they just be in range if radar works in all directions? Do they need to chase opponents like this in real life?
In: Technology
Radar doesnt look everywhere all at once. It sweeps side to side then changes vertically a little then sweeps side to side again, slowly scanning a relatively small cone of airspace in front of the plane. Once it sees something in the cone the pilot or an automated system may decide to focus more on that radar return, making the cone slightly tighter around that object to increase the frequency of radar returns and getting a more accurate picture of speed, heading etc.
Then the pilot may decide to ‘lock’ onto the object, focusing most of the radar at that object alone before deciding to fire at it.
As the radar is in the nose cone of the aircraft, and as typically looks approximately forwards, you need to be sort of pointed at what you want to see.
Now you can push the radar to look more to the sides or up/down if you want too, depending on what you are doing, but that’s a bit more situation dependent.
Lastly, with data links in modern aircraft you might not need to lock on at all. Your buddy might have done that already and you can use his aircraft’s data instead.
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