AN/APS-21
Contents
Description
The AN/APS-21 is an American airborne target detection (search) radar. In game it is often found fitted in conjunction with the AN/APG-26 target tracking radar.
Vehicles equipped with this radar
General info / usage
The AN/APS-21 is only a target detection radar so cannot, by itself, track targets or provide a lead indicator. However the radar is always fitted in conjunction with the AN/APG-26 tracking radar, which can track targets (albeit only at a much closer range than the AN/APS-21 is capable of detecting targets at).
| Features | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Band | Pulse mode | PD mode | MTI mode | IRST mode | TWS mode | SARH |
| I | ✓ | X | X | X | X | X |
| Search characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Max range | Effective range | Display ranges | IFF | ||
| SRC | 45 km | 28 km | 20 km, 45 km, 110 km, 220 km, 370 km |
✓ | ||
| Search modes | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Scan type | Azimuth | Elevation | Period | ||
| SRC | Two-way raster | ±30° | -10°/+20° | 3 s | ||
| Two-way raster | ±85° | -10°/+20° | 8.5 s | |||
Comparison with analogues
Compared to other airborne radars, the AN/APS-21 has a good range for its BR. The radar also has a very wide azimuth scanning angle, scanning to 85° in each direction. The radar does however have fairly poor elevation scanning angles, only able to scan 16 degrees up or down.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Incredible 45 km maximum range
- Guaranteed detection range of 28 km
- Very good azimuth scanning angles
- Two different search modes
Cons:
- Relatively poor elevation scanning angles
- Fairly slow scanning, taking 3 seconds to complete a scan on the default settings (long enough that blips can begin to fade between scans).
- Relatively high minimum range (1 km)
History
The AN/APS-21 was developed by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It was developed in the late 1940s / early 50s as part of the AN/APQ-35 radar suite for the Douglas F3D-1 Skyknight. The suite consisted of the AN/APS-21 search radar, the AN/APG-26 tracking radar, and the AN/APS-28 tail warning radar. A larger and more powerful version of the suite designated AN/APQ-36, was developed and fitted to later models of the F3D as well as the F7U Cutlass.
Despite the AN/APS-21 being fitted to the Javelin F.(A.W.) Mk.9 and Mitsubishi T-2 in game neither of these vehicles used the radar in real life. The Javelin F.(A.W.) Mk.9 used either the American AN/APQ-43 (AI.22) radar suite, or the British AI.17 radar for later models. The Mitsubishi T-2 used the Mitsubishi Electric J/AWG-11. It is unclear whether these vehicles will be given historical radars in the future or if the AN/APS-21 will be considered "close enough" to their historical radar performance.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
External links
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
