"Evan Brennan" wrote in message
m...
Guy Alcala wrote in message
...
Evan Brennan wrote:
The Argentine pilots used an early version of the Matra 530 that
suffered from a narrow field of vision (30-40 degrees) and a
smaller range of sensitivity to heat.

The British Sea Harrier pilots carried the US-made AIM-9L which
had a 90-120 degree field of vision,

Probably more like 54-80 degrees: +-27 degrees off boresight for
acquisition, +-40 deg. OB for tracking, according to one fairly
authoritative source (snip)

I won't argue with all the technobabble, but the specs I mentioned are
found in 'Argentine Airpower in the Falklands War: An Operational
View', Dr. James S. Corum. As of this writing, it's online at:


http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/a...l02/corum.html

I read it (well, as much as I could stand to, but grinding my teeth is
bad for me). Aside from the numerous minor errors, there are several
real
howlers in it (snip)


Yet fewer than we got from Sharkey Ward. : )


Re the R.530EM (SARH) seeker, I've got the following: 40 deg. off
boresight,
but has to be within 25 deg. OB at launch.


Ah, Mr. Alcala, it's obvious to me that Dr. Corum was talking about
degrees with regards to maximum aspect angle of the target aircraft in
relation to the attacking aircraft.

You're confusing yourself and everyone else by giving degrees
off-boresight.

Since this thread turned to missiles, and knowing little about them, I've
been looking them up. It seems the case that on the majority missile specs
include the 'field of regard' given as the +/- off-boresight angle.

Seems intuitive enough since the OB angle is the same as the
aircraft-to-target angle for all but extremely close encounters (where you'd
be too close for missiles anyway).

Jim D