I figured I'd ask here since there's been discussion of the AI perfectly "notching" after you fire a missile at them.

I thought this meant turning slightly and possibly changing altitude slowly to keep the missile on your beam as it turns to intercept you. As Robert Shaw explains, almost a slow barrel roll around the missile's flight path to correct for the missile turning as it tracks you, keeping it on your 3/9 the entire time (especially if you've visually aquired the missile). You can watch the AI doing this in the external views too for an example.

Is this what it means to notch?

When a transmitted pulse hits a target aircraft and is reflected back to the radar, then if the aircraft is flying toward/away from the radar, there will be a slight change in the frequency of the pulse caused by the doppler effect. Measurement of this will give a rough idea of the speed of the "target".
Most modern radars use a filter to get rid of spurious clutter returns by ditching any pulses from "targets" that exhibit too slow a doppler speed, ie. it assumes these can't really be an aircraft (might be birds, rain, the ground, waves at sea, etc.)


If you draw a graph of speed against rejection/acceptance, it kinda looks like a straight line with a notch cut in it, hence the term doppler notch:-

--------\____/--------


A bandit can exploit this doppler rejection by turning to fly a course at 90 degrees to the radar that makes his speed toward/away from the radar seem too slow to be a genuine target.

It is said that in the early versions of AWACS aircraft that they would detect trucks driving on roads as genuine targets unless the doppler rejection speed was set to (eg) 80 miles per hour.

BRD won...

Uh yeah! LOL

With a name like BritRadarDude, how could he not

HE could get 'notched'!

Thanks BritRadarDude!

Its just as I thought. Notching is just putting it on your beam like I described. I'd always heard "he'll notch you radar/missile". That sounds less silly than the term I usually use when thinking to myself: "Ok I need to start beaming his missile". Sounds like Star Trek!

Robert Shaw explains RL tactics, that has nothing to do with Lomac.
I'll suggest you use the search here and at lockon.ru for BVR tactics
to survive the engagements in Lomac world.

I don't think beaming is the exact same thing as notching. Beaming helps keep the missile working harder, having to constantly turn to track you, using up its energy. That may also provide notching for its radar, but if it's a SARH missile, it's the launching aircraft's radar you'd need to notch, not the missile's (as it has none). Beaming can help even if it's a heater coming after you, which is not radar related at all.

BEAM (w/cardinal direction) - Target stabilized within 70 to 110 degrees of aspect; generally given in cardinal directions: east, west, north, and south

NOTCH(ING) (w/direction) - Directive (informative) for an all-aspect missile defensive maneuver to place threat radar/missile near the beam.

I have been surviving, friend, in the wacky world of Lockon -- for several months now, thank you. You ask what the definition of one term is and everyone takes you for a greenhorn.



Wow, thats just picky. If you take into account your definition of "beam", "beaming" would be the same thing as "notching". The act of putting something somewhere vs. where that "somwhere" actually is located.

Anyhoo...it seems I had the right idea.

LOL - actually most of my career has been working on ATC radars, so my knowledge is more limited than you might think.
We have different issues to deal with in ATC radars regarding rejection of false targets.

Bad guys beam, blue air notches, same thing, makes comms on the radio easier.

What I've meant was that one has to adapt BVR to the missile model in Lomac and RL tactics
are not always helpful to do that (therefore my suggestion to search). There are tactics
to spoof missiles that you won't find in the books.

Beam/Notch were taken from the
"Operational Brevity Words, Definitions, and Counterair Communication Standards".
Just copied, nothing picky about it.

I'm reading quickly--don't have much free time today--and, so, if I'm restating something already said, please forgive me.

You notch the radar platform; you beam the missile or attacking aircraft. The distinction is important. If the missile is SARH, then you are flying at 90 degrees (roughly) to the attacking aircraft to 'notch', not the missile. If the missile is ARH and has not yet gone active, you are still flying 90 degrees (roughly) to the attacking aircraft not the missile. Only once the ARH missile has gone active would 'notching' and 'beaming' both apply to the missile.

Just thought I'd toss that out for consideration.

Rich

Excelent Reply there Brit, I hope you dont mind if i add your response to our training Room. With credit of course ;-)

The notch is a maneuver whose purpose is to cause the enemy radar to drop the lock it has on you (or just in general lose track).

You can beam into the notch, but beaming and notching are not the same:

Notching implies beaming the target to break lock when forcing a look-down situation. You can beam co-alt or look-up or just plain really close and you won't be notching (the radar will hold its lock/track on you).

No worries Ice....

Ok, I can immediately identify with that. I see the difference now. Thanks GrayGhost!

No problem

BRD gave a great technical explanation of it. In essence, the notch is the price you pay for having look-down capability!