F-15e Questions.. Hacker Where You At?

BTpilot

BTpilot

Living the...dream?
Alright, so I just got around to finishing Smallwood's mudhen book. Went on a reading marathon on a ton of deadheads this month.

I am just a feeble minded 20 year old airline pilot, so my knowledge of the complex radar systems is small. I know this is a better questions for wizzos, but if pilots know, that'd be nice. So, when y'all are inbound to a target, why do you have to turn for the wizzo to make a map? Is he essentially painting the ground to find(and identify) the correct target? Is that essentially what "Designating" means? Also does your INS correlate with all this so you know what you're looking at?.. Does the wizzo look at the moving map that shows INS information then finds things through FLIR and radar?

Also, what is the basic difference before jettisoning and pickling? I understand that on the mudhen the pilot pickles and then the computers drop the ordinance, right?.. and jettisoning is basically just dropping them dumb? or getting rid of them when in need?(escaping SAMs)

On to LGB's.. The book did a great job explaining a lot of this, but I was confused on how the targeting pod works. When you pickle and the bomb comes off dumb then starts falling, lets say you have to jink.. Does the targeting pod move so that the wizzo can still see the image and work his crosshairs?

On the F-15E driver's panel, what can your CRTs display? It is my assumption that the driver panel only has one CRT with mapping capabilities? I believe that is the center right by your stick.. What does that display? FLIR and radar? Or can it switch between all the wizzo's screens?
Left one is ordinance, I think.. What is the right one?

Sorry for the overload. I like learning haha
 
BTpilot said:
So, when y'all are inbound to a target, why do you have to turn for the wizzo to make a map? Is he essentially painting the ground to find(and identify) the correct target? Is that essentially what "Designating" means? Also does your INS correlate with all this so you know what you're looking at?.. Does the wizzo look at the moving map that shows INS information then finds things through FLIR and radar?
Click to expand...

I don't use a WSO and I'm not a F-15E guy, but we do all of the same stuff to some degree or another. If you are trying to use A/G radar, you have to turn the nose away to get any sort of picture to build. There is a dead zone off the nose, which IIRC is created by sidelobe clutter or some other technobabble. Maybe Hacker can tighten me up on this, but I just press the I believe button and do it. You actually need a pretty solid offset angle to build a good picture. The INS will get the radar in the right place to start looking. Same goes for the FLIR/pod. Once you get them working within a reasonable range, you tighten up the designation with those sensors.

BTpilot said:
Also, what is the basic difference before jettisoning and pickling? I understand that on the mudhen the pilot pickles and then the computers drop the ordinance, right?.. and jettisoning is basically just dropping them dumb? or getting rid of them when in need?(escaping SAMs)
Click to expand...

Pickling refers to releasing the weapon with the intent to bomb something and have it go high order (explode). When you press the pickle button, the ordnance is released from the rack(s) in an armed condition. It can still dud depending on a number of factors, but that's the basic idea. Jettisoning ordnance refers to releasing the weapons in an un-armed condition. This is also not a definite, as no weapon that comes off your jet can ever be guaranteed to be safed, but I digress. In the Hornet, you can either selective jettison, which allows you to punch off individual stations, or you can emergency jettison. E Jett simply cleans off the entire jet, including fuel tanks, racks, pylons, and everything else with exception of the wingtip stores and the cheek stations. This option would be reserved typically for a takeoff emergency, or in some other cases that I will leave to your imagination. When/where/how we jett stores is classified, but suffice to say that there are times to do it.

BTpilot said:
On to LGB's.. The book did a great job explaining a lot of this, but I was confused on how the targeting pod works. When you pickle and the bomb comes off dumb then starts falling, lets say you have to jink.. Does the targeting pod move so that the wizzo can still see the image and work his crosshairs?
Click to expand...

Basic theory is that you need to somehow give the weapon laser energy for a certain amount of it's time of flight. I don't think the details can really be discussed here, but someone needs to be lasing the target to get a good hit. Modern pods have both the sensor (which provides the visual display) and the laser designator in the same package. You can slew the pod manually, or engage an auto tracking mode depending on the situation.
 
///AMG said:
I don't use a WSO and I'm not a F-15E guy, but we do all of the same stuff to some degree or another. If you are trying to use A/G radar, you have to turn the nose away to get any sort of picture to build. There is a dead zone off the nose, which IIRC is created by sidelobe clutter or some other technobabble. Maybe Hacker can tighten me up on this, but I just press the I believe button and do it. You actually need a pretty solid offset angle to build a good picture. The INS will get the radar in the right place to start looking. Same goes for the FLIR/pod. Once you get them working within a reasonable range, you tighten up the designation with those sensors.

Pickling refers to releasing the weapon with the intent to bomb something and have it go high order (explode). When you press the pickle button, the ordnance is released from the rack(s) in an armed condition. It can still dud depending on a number of factors, but that's the basic idea. Jettisoning ordnance refers to releasing the weapons in an un-armed condition. This is also not a definite, as no weapon that comes off your jet can ever be guaranteed to be safed, but I digress. In the Hornet, you can either selective jettison, which allows you to punch off individual stations, or you can emergency jettison. E Jett simply cleans off the entire jet, including fuel tanks, racks, pylons, and everything else with exception of the wingtip stores and the cheek stations. This option would be reserved typically for a takeoff emergency, or in some other cases that I will leave to your imagination. When/where/how we jett stores is classified, but suffice to say that there are times to do it.

Basic theory is that you need to somehow give the weapon laser energy for a certain amount of it's time of flight. I don't think the details can really be discussed here, but someone needs to be lasing the target to get a good hit. Modern pods have both the sensor (which provides the visual display) and the laser designator in the same package. You can slew the pod manually, or engage an auto tracking mode depending on the situation.
Click to expand...

Wonderful sir. Answers a lot of what I was curious about.

You answered the LGB question I had. I understand how the weapon works, I was just curious about the pod and you mentioned that.

Hope alls well in the hornet. I always enjoy making my Lynnhaven Walmart trips at certain times so I can watch( well... listen ;) ) all the hornets recover from night sorties. Also when we are barreling down at 250 to the marker on ORF's ILS 23, it's nice to see y'all skirting around at low level over the bay.
 
//AMG said:
I don't use a WSO and I'm not a F-15E guy, but we do all of the same stuff to some degree or another. If you are trying to use A/G radar, you have to turn the nose away to get any sort of picture to build. There is a dead zone off the nose, which IIRC is created by sidelobe clutter or some other technobabble. Maybe Hacker can tighten me up on this, but I just press the I believe button and do it. You actually need a pretty solid offset angle to build a good picture. The INS will get the radar in the right place to start looking. Same goes for the FLIR/pod. Once you get them working within a reasonable range, you tighten up the designation with those sensors.
Click to expand...

I'm a F-15E WSO with an electrical engineering degree. I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Here comes the technobable: the F-15E has the capability to make a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) map. It's essentially a quilted patch-work of radar returns that are pieced together to form a vertical-view image. Here's a few publicly-released versions:
radar_hrm_images.jpg

One of the factors of image quality (well..azimuth resolution in technical terms) is how much lateral ground track the aircraft covers during the mapping leg. To get the most lateral ground track, we check away from the target as much as possible within the angular limits of the radar and we fly a fast ground-speed. The dead zone that AMG mentioned exists because there would be no lateral track if you just pointed straight at the target. The JSTARs has it's radar mounted on the underside of the fuselage and point laterally outward just so the aircraft can fly perpendicular to its target while making decent maps. Intel satellites can make some pretty awesome SAR maps simply because their ground speed is in the rediculous range. I hope that answers your question
 
hook_dupin said:
I'm a F-15E WSO with an electrical engineering degree. I also stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Click to expand...

haha I love it

hook_dupin said:
radar_hrm_images.jpg

One of the factors of image quality (well..azimuth resolution in technical terms) is how much lateral ground track the aircraft covers during the mapping leg. To get the most lateral ground track, we check away from the target as much as possible within the angular limits of the radar and we fly a fast ground-speed. The dead zone that AMG mentioned exists because there would be no lateral track if you just pointed straight at the target. The JSTARs has it's radar mounted on the underside of the fuselage and point laterally outward just so the aircraft can fly perpendicular to its target while making decent maps. Intel satellites can make some pretty awesome SAR maps simply because their ground speed is in the rediculous range. I hope that answers your question
Click to expand...

Best explanation I've heard.....^^^ what he said :)

Oh yeah, welcome to the board, nice to have another mil guy on here to talk shop with
 
Welcome to the boards? Hook isn't exactly brand new here....:)

But a nice sentiment nonetheless.
 
MikeD said:
Welcome to the boards? Hook isn't exactly brand new here....:)

But a nice sentiment nonetheless.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but his post count reveals that he's a total n00b.




(I'm only kidding) :)
 
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