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Old 9th Mar 2014, 14:03
  #854 (permalink)  
kwh
 
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For a more in-depth primer on radar horizon calculations in a variety of units, see Computing Radar Horizon

The aircraft wouldn't have to lose very much height at that distance before it dropped below the radar horizon for a land based radar site at 200Nm out. Nevertheless, I'm confused - why can they not say 'it was travelling at [x] knots on vector [y] at rate of descent [z] before it vanished from our scopes'? That's what military radar installations are there for, surely?
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