Hello.
I'm doing some independent avionics research, with an eye towards having user-controllable SEAD functionality added to a future Lock On sequel. I don't work for ED and this is all unofficial and nothing is planned, but I know that their decisions about features and flyable aircraft can be influenced by the available documentation and/or knowledge about the relevant real-world user interface avionics.
I'm looking for help interpreting the following display, which should be of a modern Russian L-150 "Pastel" RWR, operating in a mode for cueing ARMs:
To start with, I'm interested that it appears to have both a horizontal azimuth angle axis (along the bottom, in degrees 30-15-0-15-30) and a vertical range axis (150-100-50-0 km), much like an air intercept radar B-scope.
First question is, should an ARM targetting display show range to target? What are the possible sources of target range information, when operating in a passive-detection mode? Does it have to be pre-briefed (PB) mode, with target locations programmed in at the airbase, or can the target range be determined by signal intensity and/or triangulation? Especially, I'm interested in how the HARM targeting system (HTS) allows the pilot to make long-range HARM shots without the need for PB - this knowledge could be used to help better reverse-engineer the L-150 display in the photo.
It's also interesting that despite the fact that range is shown, the buttons in the lower corners seem to be labelled "target designate left" and "target designate right" in Russian acronyms - but there seems to be no target cursor, nor any controls for "up" or "down", or "closer"/"farther" as would appear on a B-scope. Any ideas how this would compare with an HTS mode?
Thanks in advance,
-SK