Marconi S-400

Description

The Marconi S 400 atop the turret of a Chieftain Marksman

The Marconi S 400 or Marconi Series 400 is a British ground based target detection and tracking radar. In game it is found as the main fire control radar of the Chieftain Marksman.

Vehicles equipped with this radar

• Chieftain Marksman

General info / usage

The Marconi S 400 is capable of both scanning for targets and locking onto targets, however it does not offer "Track While Scan" (TWS) capability, this means that the radar must cease scanning in order to lock onto a target. As a result of this if a target is locked onto then all other radar blips will stop updating and be removed from the display within a few seconds. Upon a target lock being lost the radar will revert to scanning. When the radar is locked onto a target it will stop spinning and instead point directly towards the target, following it as the target moves.

The radar has a "Line of Sight (LoS) scan" mod. In this mode the radar dish is locked in place facing the front of the turret, as such it will only detect targets within a very narrow azimuth range, relative to the front of the turret, however elevation scanning angles remain unchanged. In LoS mode the radar (and thus the turret) need to be directly facing a target in order to detect it, once a target has been detected it can be locked onto in the normal manner and the radar will automatically follow it; once a lock is lost the radar will revert to LoS mode and face the front of the turret. The benefits of operating the radar in LoS mode are that as the radar is not emitting in all directions you will not alert enemy aircraft equipped with radar detectors to your presence unless you aim directly at them.

Search Characteristics
Maximum Detection Range	Minimum Detection Range	Range Settings
12,000 m	1,000 m	12 km
Search Modes
Search Mode	Azimuth Scan Angle	Elevation Scan Angle	Scan Time	Minimum relative speed	Maximum relative speed
Default	360°	-10°/+90°	1.20 s	15 m/s (54 km/h)	1,000 m/s (3,600 km/h)
LoS Scan	~ ±1.5°	-10°/+90°	0.25 s	15 m/s (54 km/h)	1,000 m/s (3,600 km/h)
Tracking Characteristics
Maximum Tracking Range	Minimum Tracking Range	Azimuth Tracking Angle	Elevation Tracking Angle	Minimum relative speed	Maximum relative speed
10,000 m	100 m	360°	-10°/+87°	15 m/s (54 km/h)	1,000 m/s (3,600 km/h)

Comparison with analogues

Compared to other search and tracking radars the Marconi S 400 has fairly poor range being able to detect targets at only 12 km range and lock on to them at only 10 km. The radar system also lacks Track While Scan capability which other systems can achieve by using two different radars. On the flip side however as the main radar is also the tracking radar, the Marconi S 400 can track targets through a full 360°, unlike SPAAs such as the Gepard where the tracking radar is mounted on the front of the turret, so targets can only be tracked in a limited area in-front of the turret.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Reasonably fast scanning
• Can track targets through a full 360 degrees
• As radar does not need to fold / unfold, can be powered up and shut down instantly

Cons:

• Poor range
• Lacks "Track While Scan" capability
• Radar is not foldable while not in use

History

The Marconi S 400, also known as the Marconi Series 400 or Marconi 400 Series, was a ground based radar developed by the British company Marconi Electronic Systems. The radar was developed by Marconi in the 1980s for use on their Marksman anti-aircraft system. The Marksman is a generic turret which can be fitted to a number of chassis and is founed in game on a Chief tin chassis as the Chieftain Marksman. Finland uses the Marksman system on T-55AM and Leopard 2 chassis.

Marconi Electronic Systems merged with British Aerospace plc (BAe) in 1999 to form BAE Systems which is still operating today.

Media

An excellent addition to the article would be a video guide, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

See also

• SPAA radars
• Chieftain Marksman

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on weapon;
• other literature.