Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: eno_
"Passive" radar is line of sight. In short, for it to detect an object, the object would have to pass through a rather small three-dimensional area of space between the transmitter and receiver (not much larger than the very few points in space between the transmitter and receiver that the emissions would pass through).

If one were to raise the transmitter a couple hundred miles, that 3-dimentional area, while encompassing a lot of altitude, would encompass little more than the area of the receiver itself in the horizontal axes at the angle between the satellite in question and the receiver.

The devil in the terrestrial case is where the transmitters/receivers are. I rather doubt that Iraq (or for that matter, any other country) can afford to implement this as much more than either a tripwire or a very limited area defense protecting a target such as Baghdad. Even when something is detected in either case (with the latter providing a bit more target resolution, but nowhere near enough to guide weapons to target), you still need to find the target with enough accuracy to put weapon on machine, something that the F-117/B-2 WERE designed to deal with. Even though the Serbs were reported to have a similar system, it took a lot of luck and not a little bit of operational stupidity for them to score ONE F-117.

29 posted on 09/26/2002 10:49:45 AM PDT by steveegg
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies ]


To: steveegg
Yep, what you said.....
32 posted on 09/26/2002 11:05:49 AM PDT by ASA Vet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson