Originally posted by wd1:
i notice that lots of russian fighters ( su27 onwards) n the new Eurocanards ( rafale, Ef2000) have an IRST set, or infra red seach/track that enables them to passively scan for enemy aircraft up to 50-90 nm away by looking for their heat signature... but no US aircraft up to F35 claims to have such a feature, relying on radar and perhaps F22's ALR-94 RWR suite...
question: can the LANTIRN pod's FLIR or the F16 block 60's ( since its the one RSAF will most likely buy) inbuilt one be used for air-to-air as well as air-to-ground? ie scan airspace n detect enemy fighters? or is it air-to-ground only... if so that seems a pretty serious deficiency...
LANTIRN can only do ground-attack as it was design for that purpose. The new Sniper XR can do both air-to-air infra-red tracking and ground imaging.
As for the Block60 Vipers, they will be equiped with 2 senors, one on top on the nose cone and in front of the canopy for air-to-air, and one under the nose cone for air-to-ground.