What Are Advantages And Disadvantages Of Secondary Radar?

1.	What Are Advantages And Disadvantages Of Secondary Radar?
Answer» Advantages: Reply signal transmitted by Transponder is very strong (unlike Echo signal in CASE of Radar), this provides good detection capability independent of clutter and WEATHER. The transmitting power required of the ground station for a given range is much reduced, thus PROVIDING considerable economy. The signal received from the Transponder offers a lot of details of the target such as Speed, Direction, ALTITUDE, identification of the target etc. Disadvantages: It depends on aircraft AVIONICS, so the aircraft/target with no transponder cannot utilize the benefits of secondary radar. If the target is not cooperating then Secondary radar will not be able to provide any information. Just like in 09/11 attacks on America when terrorists switched off the transponders of hijacked aircraft and it was impossible for ATC to trace those aircraft. So Secondary radar needs to be used in conjunction with the primary radar in order to avoid such situations to get repeated. Advantages: Disadvantages:

Answer»

Advantages:

Reply signal transmitted by Transponder is very strong (unlike Echo signal in CASE of Radar), this provides good detection capability independent of clutter and WEATHER.
The transmitting power required of the ground station for a given range is much reduced, thus PROVIDING considerable economy.
The signal received from the Transponder offers a lot of details of the target such as Speed, Direction, ALTITUDE, identification of the target etc.

Disadvantages:

It depends on aircraft AVIONICS, so the aircraft/target with no transponder cannot utilize the benefits of secondary radar.
If the target is not cooperating then Secondary radar will not be able to provide any information. Just like in 09/11 attacks on America when terrorists switched off the transponders of hijacked aircraft and it was impossible for ATC to trace those aircraft. So Secondary radar needs to be used in conjunction with the primary radar in order to avoid such situations to get repeated.

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