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The newer missiles are Active radar homing and have their own radar to search for and find the target and shoot it down.
The engagement is essentially the same as with AMRAAM or R-77 where you have a launch platform with search and tracking radars (sometimes separate and sometimes the same radar... for instance BUK has large vehicle based search radars to scan and look for targets, but it also has a tracking radar on each vehicle so each vehicle can separately engage targets even when the search radar is off. A fighter aircraft will have a search and track function with its nose mounted radar.
The point is that the search radar finds the target, the tracking radar is then used to track it and collect information like speed and flight direction. The missile is then launched with the RCS of the target taken into account. The radar in the missile will detect the target at a specific range so the system will calculate a flight position for the missile to fly to so that the target is directly in front of it when it reaches that point. The missile will fly on an autopilot to that point and when it reaches that point it turns on its own radar and finds the target and then homes in and destroys it.
If the target manouvers and changes direction then a new intercept point is calculated and transmitted to the missile so it flys to the new location before turning on its radar to look for the target.
The missiles seeker will have a reasonable field of view and range so if the target only slightly changes speed or altitude the launch system might not send corrections at all because the missile will still find the target and engage it.
With a semi active radar homing missile the tracking radar sends a beam of radar energy at the target and the outgoing SARH missile detects the reflected energy and homes in on it, so it is a bit like laser spot homing except the laser is a radar beam.
With command guided missiles like Pantsir or TOR the target is tracked either by tracking radar or by optics and course change commands are sent via a datalink from the launch platform usually via the tracking radar.
The search and tracking radar can be turn off so as to not reveal the presence of the vehicle, but rather than sending radar beams to track the target the tracking radar just sends course corrections to the missile based on the optics system tracking the outgoing missile and the target optically.
If you manouver the missile so it is in line with the target eventually the missile will either hit the target or pass close enough for the proximity warhead to detonate.
AFAIK with SARH and ARH missiles in optical mode the radars are not used and they essentially become command guided missiles... which are rather harder to jam... or detect you are under attack from.
The whole point of optical guidance is to not use radar to give away to the target it is under attack.
Modern aircraft might detect the IR signature of the incoming missile of course but they won't know how it is being guided so chaff and flares and DIRCMs might be used, which of course wont effect missiles like TOR or Pantsir or BUK in optical guidance mode... which is why they are so dangerous.
The engagement is essentially the same as with AMRAAM or R-77 where you have a launch platform with search and tracking radars (sometimes separate and sometimes the same radar... for instance BUK has large vehicle based search radars to scan and look for targets, but it also has a tracking radar on each vehicle so each vehicle can separately engage targets even when the search radar is off. A fighter aircraft will have a search and track function with its nose mounted radar.
The point is that the search radar finds the target, the tracking radar is then used to track it and collect information like speed and flight direction. The missile is then launched with the RCS of the target taken into account. The radar in the missile will detect the target at a specific range so the system will calculate a flight position for the missile to fly to so that the target is directly in front of it when it reaches that point. The missile will fly on an autopilot to that point and when it reaches that point it turns on its own radar and finds the target and then homes in and destroys it.
If the target manouvers and changes direction then a new intercept point is calculated and transmitted to the missile so it flys to the new location before turning on its radar to look for the target.
The missiles seeker will have a reasonable field of view and range so if the target only slightly changes speed or altitude the launch system might not send corrections at all because the missile will still find the target and engage it.
With a semi active radar homing missile the tracking radar sends a beam of radar energy at the target and the outgoing SARH missile detects the reflected energy and homes in on it, so it is a bit like laser spot homing except the laser is a radar beam.
With command guided missiles like Pantsir or TOR the target is tracked either by tracking radar or by optics and course change commands are sent via a datalink from the launch platform usually via the tracking radar.
The search and tracking radar can be turn off so as to not reveal the presence of the vehicle, but rather than sending radar beams to track the target the tracking radar just sends course corrections to the missile based on the optics system tracking the outgoing missile and the target optically.
If you manouver the missile so it is in line with the target eventually the missile will either hit the target or pass close enough for the proximity warhead to detonate.
AFAIK with SARH and ARH missiles in optical mode the radars are not used and they essentially become command guided missiles... which are rather harder to jam... or detect you are under attack from.
The whole point of optical guidance is to not use radar to give away to the target it is under attack.
Modern aircraft might detect the IR signature of the incoming missile of course but they won't know how it is being guided so chaff and flares and DIRCMs might be used, which of course wont effect missiles like TOR or Pantsir or BUK in optical guidance mode... which is why they are so dangerous.
