Wx radar used for military identification??
Flying in the Gulf for a major carrier (guess), I have been wondering about the following for many years.
In our SOP it is written that, flying in this military sensitive region, we should always keep the Wx radar on for military identification.
Nobody has been able to confirm the technical reason behind this to me so far, nor does anybody knows where this rule is coming from.
But, in true Gulf style, everybody blindly follows this rule, flying day in day out with WX radar on!
I have the strong feeling that this is a very old recommendation from before the TCAS era, which has been put in the SOP on which our SOP has been based many years ago. The rule hase become an urban myth and nobody has dared since, due to the lack of the necessary technical knowledge, to question it.
I know this practice was started when a jetliner was shot down over Chah Bahar in Iran by accident by the military. But technology has evolved a lot since than.
I can be wrong but dont the military pilots these days have better ways of identifying a civil airliner besides watching the returns of our WX radars.
Could anybody here, preferentially a military pilot, shed some light on this topic?
MAny thanks
Last edited by Qatari515; 27th Sep 2008 at 15:38.