How will smog affect the effectiveness of ground based AD?
The other day a chinkshill kept on spamming IR photos of F-35s as some sort of gotcha after being shown that the F-35 is indeed, a stealth aircraft and not some magic invisible plane. That got me thinking: isn't China's air polluted as shit?
Besides the fact that IRST at altitude in clear skies has trouble seeing an F-35 from beyond 20 miles, how much more would this be exacerbated by smog from the ground for passive systems? What about fire control radars? Basic reading showed me that with the AQI at 200, EO systems are as good as your eyes, IRST range gets cut by 40%, S-band radars by 20% and X-band by 35%. No idea if that napkin math is correct or not.
Obviously this all does not apply to flying platforms as smog tops out at around 2000 feet but I think it's interesting how much environmental factors may affect detection systems' effectiveness, forcing much more reliance on flying platforms to actually get firing solutions.
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 2:08:51 AM
No.64260497
[Report]
>>64260269 (OP)
Ideally you have AWACS and not ground systems alone for air defense.
>>64260269 (OP)
Higher band frequencies aren't blocked and reflected by particulates. Military radar is not weather radar. This wasn't a problem in the 1970's, why would it be a problem now?
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 6:14:30 AM
No.64261209
[Report]
>>64261327
>>64261176
You got it the wrong way around. Higher frequency radars that OP mentioned like X-band or Ku-band fire control radars are exactly the type of radars to be most affected by the weather and smog.
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 6:43:31 AM
No.64261285
[Report]
>>64261304
>>64260269 (OP)
Pollution like this is mostly ground level, as high as F35 fly there would likely be little to no pollution which would greatly affect sensors. Ground based units would have more to worry about, but even then, modern sensor equipment is good enough that it could filter out the 'noise'.
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 6:52:27 AM
No.64261298
[Report]
>>64261176
It’s not like China has been heavily investing in laser based AD…. Oh wait….
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 6:55:02 AM
No.64261304
[Report]
>>64261329
>>64261285
It's almost as if you didn't read the OP because that's what was already said...
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 7:07:32 AM
No.64261327
[Report]
>>64262235
>>64261209
What is the tactical advantage of having a weather band frequency, in a search radar?
>>64261304
>It's almost as if you didn't read the OP because that's what was already said...
Kek, yea you caught me.
Anyways, smog generally only blocks a few specific wavelengths of light with varying degrees of effectiveness. A bigger concern would be for accurate lasing and proper rangefinding. Though I'm pretty sure moder(ish) radars would have no real degradation in such conditions. I could imagine that it would take lethal levels of air pollution to truly degrade any modern sensors to the point where there effectiveness is compromised.
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 7:37:31 AM
No.64261375
[Report]
>>64261329
> I could imagine that it would take lethal levels of air pollution to truly degrade any modern sensors to the point where their effectiveness is compromised.
While we’re on that subject, how would something like an active volcano in Iceland affect AD? Don’t volcanos launch like a fuck-tone of atomized metal into the atmosphere? Like let’s say hypothetically Iceland is getting invaded, would the active volcano be worse for the invaders or the defenders?
Anonymous
9/14/2025, 3:50:37 PM
No.64262235
[Report]
>>64261327
I don't know why you keep on bringing up search radar when I have been talking about fire control radars.
Anonymous
9/15/2025, 12:54:45 AM
No.64263814
[Report]
>>64264084
>>64261329
Huh, so it might actually hinder both the defenders and attackers if PGMs can't be lased or are GPS jammed then.
Anonymous
9/15/2025, 1:00:54 AM
No.64263835
[Report]
>>64260269 (OP)
fine particulate pollution causes impaired brain development in children
