r/WarCollege•
supinator1

Are there any air defense systems that initially fire with radar tracking and switch to infrared tracking once they get close to target?

Question

I hear that stealth aircraft are not undetectable to radar but radar not detectable enough for an accurate target lock. If you could launch a missile in the general direction and then use infrared guidance once you got close enough, you might be able to shoot down stealth aircraft. There is a limit to how much you can hide heat from an aircraft due to thermodynamics. You would need a rather large infrared scanning sensor on the missile. The other idea I had was launch 2 missiles simultaneously, one acting as the actual interceptor and the other having a radar to guide the interceptor, kind of like a mini AWACs.

Posted Sep 25, 2026, 7:43 PM UTC

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