"Bill Silvey" wrote

Essentially, to get a patch-map of the target area, the target area can't be
in the "bore" of a sixty-degree arc directly in front of the aircraft. It
has to be within the port or starboard thirty degree arcs, and cannot
be...well, it's hard to describe but if you know what I'm talking about this
should make sense:

I've never worked on a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), but I think the
theory is, that you are simulating a long antenna by flying along-track and
gaining very fine resolution:

http://www.sandia.gov/radar/whatis.html

Probably to save computer processing time, the F-15E radar gives you
only a quadrant that is valuable to targeting a weapon (ahead and off
boresight).

The stuff straight ahead (boresight) is of little use in simulating a big
antenna.

Just a Guess...