Before you fly a mission with your wingman, you should address each one of these tactical intercept phases and figure out how the flight will accomplish them. You can't do anything until you find the enemy on your radar. At first glance, this seems straightforward. You just get pointed at the bandit, and he should appear on the scope. Not so fast.
Radars have specific search volumes that are limited in elevation and azimuth.
Modern fighter radars move a radar beam across 120 of azimuth, as shown in the figure below. This sweep is called a bar. Each bar takes a specific amount of time for the radar to search, so it is not always advisable to select the maximum bar sweep. For example, if you know the bandits altitude as you approached, you do not need a 4-bar scan. You can put more radar energy out there and increase your probability of detection if you scan with fewer bars.