How do the Russian Bears navigate through the airline tracks without hitting another aircraft. Of course, they use radar and as I understnd it, they do have the kit on board.
But,........isnt it the norm to keep your transmitting gear quiet, such as radars etc so;
A) the otherside doesnt know your comming and,
Yes and no. you don't use the War frequencies and you can limit your power output so that the "enemy" doesn't know your full capability.
B) the less time you transmit, means the less time the other side has to enalyse your electronic signature.
You don't simply broadcast over the full area your radar can. You "squirt" it in the direction you want to look. Also you can on certain aircraft interrogate the othersides IFF so you can see them but they don't know you're there.
Lastly, with the big B-52 raids on Iraq that were launched from the UK, a map shows they have to transverse significant western European Airspace.
How were they separated from the civi traffic, such as close to the UK etc.
Does ATC get a flight plan and ony certain ATCO's know about the plan and handle the military traffic.
ATC gets a flightplan to a certain point. Once the A/C reached that point then they transfer to either Military ATC controllers or to Tactical agencies such as Mobile radars, E3/E2, ships etc. Then once they have dropped they go back to the point that the Flight plan starts again at to Free Call ATC whilst still under "control" of the Tactical agency.
All this is done as part of the "ACO" or Air Control Order. It sets out all the route's heights, areas to avoid etc that will be used in the operation. A limited portion of this will go to the Civil ATC units usually that bit which is in their area.
