[WAD] Contact lost on radar

[sschnei244]

Skunks 342, 343, 344 and 345 are detected on an E-3G's radar as soon as the game begins at a range of about 200nm. After 3 minutes or so, with the range closing, skunk 344 is no longer detected on radar. About a minute later the same happens to 342 and then a minute later 343. 345 remains detectable as do all other skunks on the map. Radar contact
is never regained with the three skunks. The three ships in question are modern hulls with some stealth characteristics but it seems odd that they would appear on
radar for a few minutes and never again be detected. I have played the scenario all the way thru and the Radar on the MH-60R has the same issue but the FLIR is able to
detect the radar invisible ships well enough. Bug?

[Dimitris]

Checked this now.

The three ships that are initially detected and then drop off the scope are two Stereguschchy-class frigates and one Grigorovich-class frigate. All of them have very low RCS figures (orders of magnitude lower than e.g. the Chilikin-class AOR near them).

From what I see, the frigates are detected initially because the long distance of the E-3G affords a modest lookdown angle, thus relatively low clutter. As the AWACS closes the distance and maintains the altitude, the lookdown angle increases significantly, and combined with the moderate sea state this creates significant clutter, in which these low-RCS vessels manage to disappear.

So the basic physics look correct. I'm not sure if these ships should have such low RCS figures, but that's something you can discuss with the DB folks.