Engineer(retard)
I was not calling into question any internal carriage issues. However, point of order, 't-was not the internal carriage on the F35 that drove the clipped wings methinks.
I'm most definitely not buying the AESA vs M-Scan radar argument though. I am fully aware of the Radar Power equation implying larger gain is better and that this can be achieved through use of large apertures. I do however completely scoff your implication that the smaller aperture on the F-35 (compared to the Captor) results in significant gain losses (again compared to a M-Scan radar) that cannot be regained in other areas of the AESA design. The vast number of advantages offered by AESA radars - beam agility, pulse to pulse frequency agility, advanced waveform usage for example - massively outweigh the disadvantages.
Similar argument applies for target discrimination wrt larger apertures giving smaller beam-widths at the half power point. Completely correct that the larger aperture should win. However to compare an M-Scan to an AESA is like comparing apples to oranges.
I've used both types and am unashamedly an AESA convert!
Last edited by LOAgent; 10th October 2011 at 17:48.
Reason: Awful typing