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?

Question

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

Answer 1

They don’t really. Today’s missiles get locks waaaay outside the point the pilot can visually see the target airplane. In some cases they can even shoot without a lock and have another airplane guide the missile to target. Older missiles depended heavily on the airplane’s radar which wasn’t that capable to guide it to the target so they had to keep chasing the target airplane even after they released the missiles.