3 ms·

Those radar are pulsed not continuous power. It’s far more difficult to locate pulsed sources hence things like burst encoding.

• dogma1138 4y ago
  It pulses multiple times a second and even tho in search mode it’s average power is 1-2% in tracking mode it can be as much as 50%. It still lights you up like an xmas tree. You also assume that the power delivery will be continuous instead of essentially just being used for charging a small UAV. Every modern system we have is usually completely inefficient but the price of that efficiency allows you to do other things. Our food production is extremely energy inefficient but it frees up the majority of the population to do other things, it improves sanitation in cities by pushing animal husbandry further out and it allows most of us to enjoy a wide selection of foods that taste good which has enormous societal benefits. The fact that something is inefficient doesn’t make it useless or ineffective. Heck sail ships are also far more energy efficient than airplanes but we kinda benefit greatly from being able to take off and land at any point on the planet within 24 hours or less.