Weapon, sensor, and jammer stats

Target types, engagement envelopes, and the reason every sensor carries two range figures that mean very different things.

Weapons#

Missiles, torpedoes, bombs, shells, and directed-energy weapons share one stat block.

Weapon type#

The weapons database covers everything from a gun round to a ballistic missile, and filtering by type is recommended before anything else.

The distinction between a gun round and an anti-air gun round is based on allowed target types. A ship with only surface rounds aboard cannot defend itself against aircraft, whatever its rate of fire.

Targets#

Target types are described with letter codes:

Codes can be combined. A weapon marked AU engages air and surface targets. UL is an anti-ship missile with a land-attack mode. A weapon with no A is not effective vs. aircraft.

Dual-role weapons exist. For example some naval surface-to-air missiles carry a surface mode, which makes them a short-range anti-ship weapon. One will not sink a destroyer. But knowing it exists can change what "out of ammunition at close range" means.

Range#

Maximum and minimum range define a rough engagement envelope for a weapon.

Maximum range assumes a good launch: high altitude (if air launched), high launch speed, favorable geometry, and a target that does not turn hard. Effective range is shorter against a target that runs away or one that is low and fast (because of the denser air). A missile is slow and low on energy at its maximum range, which makes it easier to avoid. Shots taken farther inside maximum range hit more often, so treat the maximum range as a theoretical figure rather than a recommended range.

Minimum range is the distance below which the weapon cannot arm, acquire or turn onto the target in time. It matters more than players expect. A long-range surface-to-air missile with a large minimum range has a hole directly above its own launcher, which is why air defenses come in layers.

Launch altitude#

This is the range of altitudes the weapon can be released from, not the altitude of targets it engages. For most air-launched weapons it never binds. It becomes real when a weapon needs height to work, which rules it out of a low-level attack, or when a ceiling stops you carrying it as high as the aircraft can fly.

Compare it to the launching aircraft's ceiling. An aircraft that operates at 15,000 m carrying a weapon that must be released below 12,000 m may have to descend into an adversary engagement zone.

Warhead#

The damage model names the warhead rather than giving a number. The pattern is readable once you know it. BlastFragAir22kg is a blast fragmentation warhead, optimized for air targets, weighing about 22 kg.

Warhead weight scales with the target the weapon was built to kill: air-to-air missiles often carry 10 to 25 kg because aircraft are relatively fragile and a proximity burst of fragments is enough, while anti-ship missiles can use hundreds of kilograms because ships are tougher targets.

That is why a dual-role SAM used against a ship is a nuisance rather than a kill, and why two hits from a small anti-ship missile may not stop a destroyer.

Weight#

All-up weight of the round. For anything carried by an aircraft, check it against that aircraft's payload figure before you plan a maximum load. Three or four heavy anti-ship missiles can exceed a strike aircraft's weight budget, and drop tanks compete for the same weight allowance.

Datalink range and wire guidance#

Datalink range is how far the launching platform can keep sending it guidance. A long datalink lets a missile be retargeted or corrected in flight, which improves probability of hitting a target that manuevers between launch and arrival.

Where the row reads None, semi-active homing, the weapon has no datalink and its seeker cannot find the target on its own. The launching platform has to keep its fire-control radar on the target until impact. Semi-active homing can constrain tactics:

• The launcher cannot turn away, so it stays committed and detectable throughout the flight.
• The number of targets it can engage at once is capped by its fire-control channels, not by how many missiles it carries.
• Break the illumination, by jamming it or by forcing the launcher to maneuver, and the shot is defeated.

Active-seeker weapons carry their own radar and can operate by themselves after they acquire the target, allowing a launcher to shoot and leave.

Radar cross-section#

Missiles have an RCS (and IR signature) too, and it affects whether the target sees the shot coming. Values sit far below an aircraft's, typically between -25 and -5 dBsm.

Read it against the defending ship's search radar reference range and apply the fourth-root rule. A missile at -15 dBsm is detected at 40% of the range a fighter-sized target (with 0 dBsm RCS) would be. Combine that with a low approach, where the radar horizon hides the missile until it is close, as well as clutter from the target's radar having to look into ground or water, and a defender can have little warning.

Torpedoes show wire guidance instead. A wire-guided torpedo stays connected to the launching submarine by a thin cable out to a max length, and the operators can steer it to correct for sonar errors and target manuevers. Wire guidance also constrains the shooter, which cannot maneuver hard without cutting the wire. A torpedo without it runs on its own search pattern after it is fired.

Sensors#

The sensors catalog covers search sensors: the radars, sonars, electro-optical systems, and ESM receivers that find things. Missile seekers and fire-control illuminators are left out. Jammers have their own category, described in Electronic countermeasures below.

A platform's Sensors section lists its complete fit, with a Role column indicating which systems search and which do fire control or jamming. Search sets and jammers have a detailed page of their own.

Search sensors share one stat block.

Reference range against max range#

These two figures mean different things, and confusing them is a common mistake players make with the database.

Max range is a hard limit, not a capability. It is the farthest the sensor can process a return at all. Nothing gets detected beyond it and only large targets get detected near it.

Reference range is the key number. It is the range at which the sensor detects a reference-size target, meaning a radar cross-section of 0 dBsm, roughly a small aircraft or a large missile. Plan with this one.

The gap between them is often large:

The two fighter radars share an instrumented limit within 10% of the naval array's. Against the same target the shipboard radar sees nearly four times further. Max range told you almost nothing.

Adjusting for the real target#

Reference range assumes a reference-size target. Radar detection range scales with the fourth root of target size, which means RCS can affect detection range less than expected.

Halving your own signature does not halve your detection range, it cuts it by 16%. And large targets get seen a long way off. If you command a big ship or a conventional bomber, assume you were seen first.

The same fourth-root relationship governs active sonar detection under different reference conditions. Passive sensors have a square root relationship because there is a one-way path from target to sensor, instead of the round-trip path that radars and active sonars use.

Coverage and scan#

Azimuth tells you how much of the horizon the sensor watches. A 360 degree number means omnidirectional coverage, from a rotating antenna or a set of fixed arrays. A figure between 120 and 140 degrees is a typical fighter nose radar, which sees nothing behind the aircraft. That is why a fighter turning away loses its contact and why airborne early warning aircraft with 360 coverage are worth more than their own detection range suggests.

Elevation gives the vertical band, with negative values looking down and positive values looking up. A fighter radar covering minus 60 to plus 60 degrees looks well above and below itself. A naval array covering 0 to 90 degrees runs from the horizon to straight overhead, which means it cannot look below its own horizontal. Anything using the earth's curvature to approach stays outside the search volume until it comes up.

Elevation limits create holes. A ground system that cannot look steeply upward has dead space in a cone above it.

Scan period is the sensor's update range and also affects latency to report new contacts. A radar with a 12 second scan revisits a given piece of sky every 12 seconds. A target that appears just after a sweep passes stays invisible until the next one. Scan period matters most against fast low targets, where you have little time to begin with, and for track quality, since frequent updates give a more accurate track and firing solution.

Frequency and radar bands#

Radars, ESM receivers, and jammers carry a Frequency range in megahertz. The hint beside it names the IEEE radar bands that range covers, so a system using 8,500 to 10,500 MHz is labeled X-band, and one reading 400 to 18,000 MHz is labeled UHF through Ku-band.

The operating band determines what an ESM receiver or a jammer can work against. It also suggests a mission application. Higher frequency systems have narrower beamwidth and better accuracy for a given antenna size. However, higher frequencies also have greater atmospheric loss and are often more expensive. A typical VHF radar is searching a large volume for early warning and will not provide an accurate firing solution. A radar at X-band or above can have much better accuracy for tracking targets.

Wide ranges are common in the database. A jammer covering UHF through MMW can engage almost any radar, but jammer energy is focused in frequency for greatest effect. See Electronic countermeasures for how jammer bandwidth affects performance.

Active and passive#

The stat block looks identical for every sensor type, but the tactical meaning differs completely. The class name and description tell you which you have.

This is the emissions trade at the center of the game. Reference range on an ESM receiver is usually greater than reference range on the radar it listens for, which is why switching your radar on is a decision rather than a default.

Electronic countermeasures#

Jammers have their own category. They are fitted like sensors and appear in a platform's Sensors list with a Role of Jammer.

Effective against defines target systems. A defensive pod listed against missile seekers protects the aircraft carrying it and does nothing to the search radar that vectored the shooter. A jammer listed against radars degrades the search picture and leaves an inbound seeker alone. Some systems can do both.

Effective radiated power is measured in dBW and includes antenna gain. It uses a logarithmic scale like radar cross-section. Ten more dBW is ten times the power. The database runs from about -16 dBW on the weakest self-protection sets to 80 dBW on the strongest (100 megawatts). Two jammers 20 dBW apart are different by a factor of 100 in effective radiated power.

RF coverage decides which radars a jammer can affect. A radar whose center frequency falls outside the range is unaffected, however much power the jammer has.

Max effect range sets a simulation limit on jamming effects. Beyond this range a radar is not jammed. Within it, the jammer still needs the radar inside its azimuth and elevation coverage and above the radar horizon, and not blocked by terrain. Jamming strength falls off with the square of the distance.