HMDS targeting
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Isn’t dogfight mode supposed to be “Radar off”? Radar is off when we engage it but as soon as we TMS up to bring up the targeting oval for the HMDS the radar activates, only then will it automatically lock up targets. I doubt the radar can look at targets so far off boresight but yet we get a lock over the shoulder. I thought the HMDS directly controls the seeker-head of the next 9x in line. I ask because locked targets are alerted targets which makes ambushing in dogfight mode harder than necessary. Switching the radar off manually and uncaging the 9x doesn’t lock up targets inside the targeting oval, so an active radar is required for HMDS lock-ons i guess.
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You seem to be confusing a couple of things. No, dogfight mode is not supposed to be “radar off”. It starts out like that but after that it allows various ACM modes of the radar once you start using the TMS (or the cursor in order to enable slewable mode). The radar has a total field of view/regard of 120 degrees, meaning it can look 60 degrees left of the nose and 60 degrees right of the nose. It will not lock over the shoulder.
The HMCS can control the seeker of the AIM-9 directly but by default it does not. The default is “slaved” mode in which it is slaved to your FCR primarily. If you want it to follow your HMCS, go to the SMS page and pres OSB 19 (I think) where it says SLAV to change it to BORE mode. Now the AIM-9X will follow your HMCS around and you can get missiles off outside of 60 degrees off bore without a radar lock.
If you don’t want to mess with the button by the MFD, holding down the cursor (i.e. pressing cursor enable) will also switch between SLAV and BORE but it is not a toggle but a “press to hold”. I believe the real jet has it working as a toggle these days but BMS has the old behavior where as soon as you let the button go it reverts back to slave. Not sure. Once you have uncaged the missile though I’m pretty sure you can release the cursor switch again. Even though it will go back to SLAV, it stays uncaged on the target you found.
Hope this makes sense.
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Ah, makes sense now, gotta test the slav/bore method and practice ambushing a bit more. The 9x doesn’t seem to care much about that stream of fireworks (flares) coming out of the enemy’s plane but it’s better to have “him” unaware of my whereabouts and hit him defenseless. They did that to me many times, it’s only fair to return the favor :D. Thx for answering my question.