AN/APS-21
Contents
Description
The AN/APS-21 is an American airborne target detection (search) radar. In game it is found fitted to high tier American, British and Japanese aircraft, 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). The AN/APS-21 has the longest maximum range of any airborne search radar currently in the game at 45 km.
| General Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum Detection Range |
Guaranteed Detection Range |
Minimum Detection Range |
Range Settings |
| 45,000 m | 28,000 m | 1,000 m | 20 km, 45 km, 110 km, 220 km, 370 km |
| Search Modes | |||
| Search Mode | Azimuth Scan Angle |
Elevation Scan Angle |
Scan Time |
| Default | ±85° | ±16° | 3.00 s |
| Narrow | ±30° | ±16° | 1.00 s |
Comparison with analogues
Compared to other airborne radars the AN/APS-21 has the best range of any airborne radar in the game, at a massive 45 km (with guaranteed detection at a still very impressive 28 km). 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 is further than other airborne radar's maximum range
- 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
An excellent addition to the article would be a video guide, as well as 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;
- encyclopedia page on weapon;
- other literature.
