Sensors

**Sensors** allow you to maintain awareness on the strategic map.

### Radar

Radar, when active, will show enemy contacts as lines perpendicular to the source on the radar UI in top left corner. The longer the line the larger the radar signature which means bigger ships. You can focus your radar on a specific area at a 60 degree angle by engaging the sector search switch - this makes your radar undetectable to ELINT outside that angle. You can also set your radar to ground mode which is only useful when looking for Hidden Cities. Radars only reach their maximum range when the ship is in the air - if you land the range is reduced to about about half, or 350km for the MR-700. Radars cannot detect landed ships even in ground mode and the AI never seems to use ground mode at all which means landing your ships makes you "invisible" to radar.

Note the radar signature stat ("RD SIGN") of ships - that is the *actual* range at which the ship can be detected by radar and is a function of ship size. For example if your ship has RD SIGN of 300km then it cannot be detected until you're within 300km of enemy radar, even if the radar normally has longer range. If several ships fly together the largest RD SIGN is used.

The only enemies using radar are Strike Groups (500km unless they spawn with a Nomad in which case it's 700km) and Convoys with cruiser escort (183km for the Kormoran and 497km for the Negev).

The enemy can use ELINT against you so be careful where and when you use your own radars.

There are two radars in the game: MR-700 and MR-500 with a range of 750km and 500km respectively.

A long-range early warning radar system.

Value: 4000

Mass: 14.4T

Size: 1x2

Range: 500km

A long-range early warning radar system.

Value: 10000

Mass: 197.8T

Size: 4x3

Range: 750km

### Fire Control Radar

FCR is a type of radar which provides Tracking (yellow circle) in addition to normal radar functions. Tracking means identification: you can tell the exact position, speed and direction of everything in the yellow circle and don't have to rely on the radar UI at all. In addition FCR allows you to use R-9 SPRINT AA defence missiles and when using radar guided missiles within Tracking range they don't have to rely on their own guidance and fly straight at the target. The number of missiles (of any type) you can guide is determined by the Guiding stat. You can increase the ship's Guiding stat by adding more fire control radars. When landed the FCR has range reduced to about 350km.

The downside of the FCR radar is that it has a shorter range than the normal radar.

There are two fire control radars in the game: MR-12 with a range of 400km capable of guiding two missiles and MR-2M with a range of 250km capable of guiding one missile.

A fire control radar (FCR) designed to detect targets and aim weapons at them. However, it has a significantly less range than a search radar.

Value: 1000

Mass: 8.5T

Size: 1x1

Range: 250km

Guidance: 1

A fire control radar (FCR) designed to detect targets and aim weapons at them. However, it has a significantly less range than a search radar.

Value: 3000

Mass: 50.4T

Size: 2x2

Range: 400km

Guidance: 2

### ELINT

Electronic Signals Intelligence is passive radar detection which lets you roughly determine where enemy radar using ships are. The dots indicate bearing (direction) in degrees while the five inner bars indicate signal strength - or in other words how close the radar source is. If ELINT detects more than one radar source the inner bars will indicate the distance to the closest one and the bearing dot of the closest source will blink quicker.

The maximum distance of ELINT (at which you pick up the signal) is equal to 2x radar range for MP-404 and 1.4x radar range for the MP-21 (the game says "1500km" and "1050km" respectively but that's only roughly correct if the enemy is using the MR-700 radar). The minimum distance of ELINT (at which all five signal strength bars are lit) is equal to enemy radar detect range. This means that to properly estimate distance you need to know the radar type the enemy is using.

The only enemies that use ELINT are Strike Groups (always full 2x detect distance) and Convoys escorted by cruisers (about 1x for the Kormoran and 1.4x for the Negev).

The effectiveness of ELINT seems to be reduced when you're landed.

There are two modules which provide ELINT: MP-404 and MP-21.

An electronic intelligence system capable of detecting enemy radar signals at long range.

Value: 2000

Mass: 8.5T

Size: 1x1

Range: 1050km

An electronic intelligence system capable of detecting enemy radar signals at long range.

Value: 4000

Mass: 44.2T

Size: 2x2

Range: 1500km

### IRST

"Infrared Search and Track" in Highfleet unfortunately only has the "search" function. IRST will detect any heat source - be it a ship, aircraft or missile - in a certain radius. If the heat source is not known you will be notified. Unfortunately it won't tell you what it is or how quickly it's moving and you can only make out the direction if it's moving perpendicularly to you. The advantage IRST has over ELINT is that it doesn't require the enemy to be using radar to work - it catches everything and cannot be detected.

IRST works together with IR SIGN (ship stat found in the Shipworks; mostly a function of power of ships' engines) the same way radar works with RD SIGN - if IR SIGN is lower than the IRST range then detection range will use the IR SIGN value instead. If several ships fly together the largest IR SIGN is used for calculating detection distance.

There is only one IRST module in the game, the IRS-1 Mars with a range of 300km.

An infrared search and track (IRST) situational awareness system. Tracks enemies passively using their heat signatures.

Value: 2000

Mass: 12.9T

Size: 2x1

Range: 300km

### Jammer

The jammer makes everything in its range "immune" to radar guided missiles by drastically reducing (but not completely removing) their radar cones. Conversely it also makes the ship a much bigger target for Kh-15P and Kh-15PN anti-radiation missiles (See Armament for specific workings of missiles). The effect of the jammer as seen on radar is white noise which makes it harder to pinpoint the bearing of the jamming source and harder still to calculate the distance to it. Activating the jammer doesn't seem to interfere with functioning of your own radar or radar guided missiles.

The jammer has an enormous radar footprint of 4000km - this means you can show up on enemy ELINT from up to 8000km away, which is basically the entire map!

There is only one Jammer module in the game. It has no name or description and range of 4000km.

### Radio

The trusty Radio lets you intercept enemy messages at a range up to 3000km(?) The specific meaning of band and signal strength is currently unknown. You have a limited time to intercept the message. The radio messages are always in the RECEIVER (which seems to not have any actual meaning) - MESSAGE - SENDER format.

Eventually the enemy will start encoding their messages; to decrypt them you can scour Crash Sites for fragments of the code although this is a temporary solution as the codes will change periodically. A good way of deciphering is by writing down the name of every SENDER you intercept then trying to match it to the message; another method is aiming for unusually short (AT, IN, ON, BY, No, KG, BY, etc) or long (CONCENTRATE, PASSANGERS, HYDRAULIC, LIQUEFIED, GALVANIZED, MACHINERY, CHEMICALS, HALOCARBON, NORTH/SOUTHEAST/WEST, etc) words.

The interception minigame unpauses the main game so be careful when intercepting in the middle of something important. Use the auto intercept option if you don't have the time or if your time is around to run out.

You can only intercept radio messages if your currently selected fleet is in the message range - there is no "interruption" like with ELINT or IRST. If your fleets are out of range you will simply miss the message. You do not need radio antennas to intercept the messages.

There is only one Radio module in the game, the STA-4 antenna.

### Visual flow chart guide

A set of good practices when a missile is inbound, Laid out as a flow chart.