Eh, I wouldn't get too wrapped up on that. Even with a non-radar capable helo (on the US side, anyway), if your gunner is lasing a target (any target, not just an enemy), the software could generate a track/target on your display which would give you the same situational awareness that the "radar bar" does.

Once the laser energy goes out, the aircraft system knows exactly where that point in space is within its INS world.

Not remotedly the same thing gatordev!
What you're saying is that you could ONLY have one "real time" target in a "Situational Awareness" page while if any other target(s) are to be present they must have been previously locked up by any helicopter crewmember but these targets aren't updated in a real time - for example if one or more of these targets moved (like any ground vehicle do) their positions wouldn't be accurate within the "Situational Awareness" page.
BUT, the "radar" in ArmA can show dozens (all targets withing range to be more precise) targets in "real time" - just like any radar.

I've always imagined that in non-radar-equipped aircraft, what I am seeing is simply target information fed by data channel from some JSTARS plane in the theater to one of my MFDs. That justification works for me, even if not every aircraft can do exactly that. Alternately, that radar is the map in my head from JSTARS target reports that one simply doesn't hear in game... lol

It's a "very positive" way of seing things but it's VERY hard to justify a "JSTARS" or any other kind of data-linked targets in older attack helicopters such as the Mi-24...

I'd go with this. If some sort of C2 asset is up above, he's probably beaming to everyone via Link 16, and thus, you have real time updates of targets in the area.

You're right, continuous updates of targets from your gunner of EVERYONE isn't realistic, but it makes up for the fact that you can see a bag guy and can't lock him up because your gunner is busy updating everything (ie, Link 16 is giving you everything but your gunner is task-saturated).

Can anyone confirm any change in this respect for the reaper drone?

I did some tests with the Predator-B UAV and the conclusion were:

No, unfortunally this new feature doesn't seem to affect the UAV -> The UAV already comes with a Laser Designator and Hellfire missiles but when you turn ON the UAV laser designator and point it, NO laser target seems to appear on the radar screen and thus the UAV laser target cannot be locked (confirmed by after pressing "TAB" several times). It seems that the laser designator generated by the UAV can only be seen and locked by other units and the UAV hellfire missiles can only lock on laser targets that are designated by other units

Guess it's a good idea to report this to BIS.

@ricnunes
Thanks for testing this!