Hello and welcome to my basic detection guide. I'm putting this together in hopes of clearing up some confusion as to how detection works in Nuclear Option, especially in the case of using aircraft radar.

this guide will be edited over time to be more complete, so please excuse any formatting errors.

Luckily for all of us, the detection system in this game is not very complicated.

One thing to keep in mind going forward is this: all units in this game benefit from perfect information sharing between all units on their team. If any hostile unit can detect you, THEY ALL KNOW WHERE YOU ARE. Obviously this also means that all friendly units benefit from what you can see, and vice versa. If you want to remain undetected you need to remain invisible to all hostile units.

Another thing to remember is that weapons do not care how a target is being detected. All weapons are Fire and Forget and once they're off the rail, you can deselect a target and the weapon will still track the target, though some weapons like the Scythe require a friendly unit to keep the target detected for at least some of the flight. The details of weapon usage will be covered in detail in other guides, but the main takeaway is that the detection and the targeting system are only related in the sense that your plane or a friendly unit needs to tell the weapon where the target is at the moment it is fired, it does not require your own detection system to guide the weapon, or a certain type of sensor to be used.

Obviously, no detection type can see through or around terrain. Any unit needs an uninterrupted line of sight to detect you, but they can still see you through datalink if another unit can see you.

Visual: the pilot can see you. All units have this within about 3km

Optical: the unit can see you with a zooming camera. Cricket, Compass and Chicane all use this detection type.

Radar: ranges of 40-50km, in a forward facing cone shown on your multifunction display. Revoker and Darkreach carry radar, as do certain ground units.

Since Optical and Visual detection do not give your own aircraft's position away I will not be covering them in detail. Radar is the only sensor system that can give away your own position and also has conditions where targets in its field of view can remain undetected.

All aircraft have a basic RWR in the sense that they can all detect when they are being pinged. If you are pinged by a radar there will be an audible beep representing a new radar source, followed by periodic shorter beeps and orange vectors on your minimap leading to the source, the marker for which will flash. The source of the Radar waves will also become spotted if you couldn't see it already. This means if your radar is ON, and there is an aircraft in the radar cone, THEY WILL DETECT YOU as soon as you detect them. Since they can detect you, their whole team can also see you through datalink.

This doesn't matter if you are already being detected by, for example, another radar station. Your radar will not tell them anything they don't already know (in terms of information they have access to that is. the radar ping might get an inattentive pilot's attention.) However, if you are undetected, you might find yourself wanting to turn your own radar OFF in order not to give yourself away. This will enable you to get much closer to a target without being detected in some circumstances, at the cost of losing the benefit of your own radar.

Keep in mind that just because your RWR is beeping doesn't necessarily mean the radar is actually reporting your position, it just means that your aircraft is detecting incoming radar waves. Under certain conditions radar might still not be able to detect you. These conditions are as follows:

1. The target is flying below [r]20m (above ground level) or a little higher if they have their jammer running. This mechanic represents hiding in the ground clutter where the radar cannot distinguish you.

2. The target is Notching, or flying at approximately perpendicular angle to the radar vector. The angle at which Notching is effective widens when the jammer is activated.

It is not common for these mechanics to allow a pilot to remain undetected for an extended period of time, but can make it difficult to predict your course and speed by jumping your last known position marker suddenly from place to place.

Hopefully this makes it a little clearer how targets are seen in Nuclear Option, and you can come away being just a little more able to actively take advantage of the systems at work to stay hidden.

Thank you and Good Hunting