FOX ONE — the AIM-7 Sparrow and why you have to keep the lock
The AIM-7 Sparrow only guides while your radar holds the lock; let it go for half a second and the missile goes ballistic. In Hornet Bay the lock is the weapon.
A Sparrow is a missile that never really leaves your jet. It rides a radar beam that you have to keep painting on the target, which makes the AIM-7 the most honest weapon on the Tomcat’s ring: the lock is not a step before the shot, it is the shot.
How it works
The round is semi-active. It carries a receiver, not a transmitter, and steers on radar energy your own set bounces off the bandit. The sim models the consequence directly: while your radar holds the locked target the round guides; let the lock go for more than half a second and it goes ballistic for good, with SPARROW LOST — RADAR LOCK BROKEN on the screen. A flicker is forgiven. A turn away is not.
In the sim, by the numbers
- Carried by the F-14 only: four AIM-7s alongside two Phoenix and two Sidewinders.
- Lock window: more than 1,000 m and less than 26,000 m, inside a cone ahead of the nose.
- Top speed 1,050 m/s, motor burn 2.8 s, flight life 50 s.
- Damage 130, against 55 for the shoulder-fired Igla. It hits hard.
- Chaff can spoof it, as it can any radar round.
Why keep it
Phoenix lets you crank away the moment it leaves the rail. The Sparrow wants you pointed at the bandit and eating the closure, so it suits the shot where the merge is coming anyway. The rules around when you may shoot are in Sparrow and the rules of engagement; the short-range counterpart, which needs no help after launch, is FOX TWO. Meet the airframe that carries it on the Tomcat page.
Try this: in the Tomcat, press ENTER until the stores page reads SP SARH, lock a bogey at about 15 km, fire, then deliberately roll off and watch the lock drop.
— HB