In the 1980s, to give the US Navy's F-14 Tomcats, and the US Air Force's F-15 Eagles practice locating, following, locking on, intercepting, and simulating the firing of the F-14's and F-15's sophisticated Aim-54 Phoenix and Aim-7 Sparrow missiles at a high altitude, high speed target, the SR-71 Blackbird flew "Tomcat Chase" and "Eagle Bait" sorties with them. The intercepts were done in an extremely regulated environment, which enabled the fighter jets to succeed. American fighter pilots were only capable of securing a lock on the SR-71 after the Blackbird crew switched off its protective countermeasures. Even under these carefully regulated flight conditions, the SR-71 was moving so fast that the F-14s and F-15s had severe difficulty achieving an effective SR-71 kill. Unless the SR-71 was damaged, it was nearly impossible to get a lock on it. A speed barrier at 1500 knots was visible on the F-15 Eagle's radar, while the SR-71 was comfortably cruising between 1850 and 2000 knots, thus, the Blackbird was literally nonexistent for the F-15 Eagles.

#shorts #youtubeshorts #sr71 #f15eagle #radar #1980s