SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (Full Version)

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Zathred -> SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/19/2019 10:32:20 AM)

Summary

Demonstrate an SA-12 battery (DBID #234) firing missiles without the Grill Pan (9S32-1) FCR being active which seems to be a defect.

Description

The SA-12 uses the Grill Pan FCR to control engagements by sending target details to the separate TELARs each of which has its own a radar illuminator to provide the SARH guidance for the missile in the final 3 second terminal phase. Prior to the terminal phase the missiles are command guided to the target via the Grill Pan FCR which uses the TELAR antenna to send the uplink commands to the missile.

The TELARs cannot fire and command guide the missiles autonomously and rely on the Grill Pan FCR active radar.

In the demo the Grill Pan FCR is disabled but the TELARs are able to independently fire missiles and complete the final illumination without the Grill Pan FCR ever being active which should not be possible. The missiles are being actively guided as can be seen if the A-6 target has its course altered while a missile is in flight.

If the Grill Pan FCR is destroyed then the battery will not fire which indicates the requirement for this component to be present. Under Damage Ctrl you can see the SA-12 Command Datalink is destroyed when the Grill Pan FCR itself is destroyed.

Examining the database it appears that the weapon data for the 9M83 missile (DBID #1858) has only the TEL illuminator linked to it as the weapon director and it is therefore not dependent on the Grill Pan being active which might be the source of the issue.

SA-12 Reference: http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Giant-Gladiator.html

CMANO DB3000 v478 & CMO DB3000 v480


Test Walkthrough

This is a CMANO scenario and the same results are found under CMO with the DB updated to v480.

1. Enter as Blue.

2. Under Map Settings enable “Selected Unit” for Datalink and Illumination Vectors.

3. Start the simulation.

4. Wait for the two Bill Board and High Screen search radars to be identified.

5. Send the A-6 Intruder on a course to a point 50 miles due west between the two radars.

6. Switch to Red and select the SA-12 unit.

7. Check that the SA-12 EMCON is set to PASSIVE and that the Sensor window shows no active radar.

8. Wait until the A-6 enters the missile range of the SA-12 and is fired upon by the battery.

9. You can see the command guidance uplink shown from the SA-12 battery to the missile but checking the sensors shows no active radar. The Grill Pan FCR should be active for the command guidance to work.

10. When the missile closes to terminal range (-3s to impact) an illumination vector will appear from the SA-12 to the A-6. The Sensor window will now show one TEL illuminator active as expected but the Grill Pan is still passive.

11. Repeat the scenario but first alter the SA-12 to mark the Grill Pan FCR as destroyed under the Damage Ctrl window. The battery will now not fire.




Zathred -> RE: SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/19/2019 11:51:46 AM)

The issue with this behaviour is that the SA-12 battery remains radar silent and cannot be detected by ESM or targeted by ARMs except for the brief 3 second period when the TELAR illuminator is active. This makes the SA-12 a much more illusive target than it would be if the Grill Pan radar was active throughout an engagement.



Dimitris -> RE: SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/19/2019 12:04:34 PM)

Thanks! We have a similar ticket in place for sensor-slaved datalinks (e.g. APG-68 mandatory to be active in order to provide datalink updates to AMRAAMs), and I think this falls under the same category.

We'll get to it at some point.



Zathred -> RE: SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/20/2019 1:04:36 PM)

I see what you mean Dimitris having turned the radar off for an F-16 after missile launch and watched it guide an Amraam to a target via the datalink without any CEC etc to assist. Seems like the same case as with the SA-12.



Zathred -> RE: SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/22/2019 12:48:46 PM)

There is also a separate issue here in that the TEL illuminators still go active for the terminal phase even though the EMCON has been set to passive for the SA-12. This breaks the strategy of turning off radar emissions to evade an ARM attack



Dimitris -> RE: SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/22/2019 5:09:01 PM)

IIRC this is WAD. "Passive EMCON" state does not preclude activating sensors necessary for weapon guidance, just those that are used for initial surveillance & detection.



Zathred -> RE: SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/25/2019 2:27:37 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dimitris

IIRC this is WAD. "Passive EMCON" state does not preclude activating sensors necessary for weapon guidance, just those that are used for initial surveillance & detection.


That explains the TELs going active - thanks.

In the case of the SA-12 the Tel illuminators are "dumb" as they receive the targeting data from the Grill Pan FCR which controls the engagement. The TEL illuminators cannot be used for search / acquisition and only illuminate the target just before impact after the system shifts from command guidance to terminal SARH homing mode. Since the Grill Pan FCR NEVER goes active this is a flaw in the modelling as the SA-12 should not be able to command guide the missiles as the FCR carries out this activity. In summary, no Grill Pan FCR, no launch and command guidance (same as the MPQ-53 radar for the Patriot for example).

Although the Grill Pan can be used for acquisition it is normally fed initial target details from the Bill Board and/or High Screen volume search radars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-300_missile_system#S-300V_(SA-12)

https://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Giant-Gladiator.html#mozTocId369660



Dimitris -> RE: SA-12 battery guiding missiles without active FCR radar (11/25/2019 2:36:21 PM)

Yes, fixing this will require changing the way we differentiate between detection/tracking and illumination/guidance, and essentially adding "tracking" as a discrete intermediate step.

This will also affect Aegis BTW, since the SPG-62/Mk99 illuminators are slaved to the SPY-1 arrays and cannot perform independent search.



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