Quick RWR Question

[adamant365]

Hello All,

Quick RWR question. I was coming back from a DEAD mission in the F16 block 40 based at Osan. On my way back, I kept getting spiked by a radar that had an “S” symbol but it was marked as an aircraft. I couldn’t find that particular symbol in the docs. Anyone know what it was? China has joined so my first thought was A-50, but is that what I was seeing?

Thanks!

[Darkman]

S with a ^ over it is an AWACS (or equivalent).

Are you sure it wasn’t NAILS (RWR search indication) rather than SPIKE (RWR track or launch indication)?

[adamant365]

My bad…yes it was NAILS, not SPIKE. I’m still not 100% up on my correct terminology.

Thanks for the reply. Those pesky Chinese…I had just shot down an A-50 about four campaign hours earlier and what do they do but put another one up.

Speaking of those pesky Chinese. They definitely have better tactics than the DPRK. I was ingressing to target on the same DEAD mission and out of the blue…SPIKE 29, launch warning. (Yes I did have the RWR in search mode). Thankfully it was only an AA-10 and I was able to defeat it and turn and shoot the Su-30…but I was a little caught off guard especially since no more than two minutes earlier I had gotten “picture clear” from Sentry. It was a bit of a wakeup that I can be shot at nearly out of the blue.

[Darkman]

AWACS is not omniscient, RWR is not accurate, keep your eyes on a swivel when you’re in bandit country; there’s a lot of AI pilots that would love an F-16 shaped sticker on the side of their aircraft and they take a childish delight in running intercepts now and popping up on your six

[Cik]

^S is AWACS, or some search-only radars.

for instance AFAIK prowlers will show up as ^S.

[Planehazza]

Most importantly, when the time comes, take a stand and deliver your arsenal…