Radar is a filtering process: broad detection, narrowed direction, focused identification, then a go/no-go decision.
The component data makes two things concrete that the store pages obscure: sensitivity is a function of radar size alone, and target-assignment range is what actually improves with grade.
The common failure is treating a ping as an instruction to fly directly at it. Scan to buy information while distance and an escape path still exist.
The same habits improve prospecting, salvage, rescue, hauling and PvP survival.
Where you are going
Low-risk practice area
Learns current ping, scan and angle controls.
Investigation range
Runs focused scans before commitment.
Objective scan zone
Uses scans to progress the actual job.
Exit vector
Prevents a scan detour becoming a trap.
What you need and why
Size is the only thing that moves sensitivity: S1 0.80 / S2 0.90 / S3–S4 0.95–1.00 across IR, CS and EM.
Alternative: If the hull is locked to one size, the grade still buys assignment range.IR and EM are your own emissions. O, P, I and U turn off shields, weapons, engines and all power respectively.
No substitute listedLets you break away from an unknown contact.
No substitute listedV for scan mode, hold-release V to ping, T/4/5/6 to target and cycle, Left Alt + 1/2/3 to pin.
Alternative: Practice defaults in safe space; the /controls page on this site lists them.Maintains visual watch while pilot reads scan data — essential against ground vehicles at 0.25 sensitivity.
Alternative: Scan only in low-risk space.What to look for
IR, CS and EM are separate. A high EM with low IR is something powered but not burning — a parked ship with systems on.
A smaller scan area separating one candidate from background noise.
Below the minimum assignment distance for your radar size the ship will not offer a lock at all.
A result that changes the next decision.
For contracts, confirms the scan can actually progress the objective.
When it goes wrong
Expected. Sensitivity is set by size, not grade — a grade-A and grade-D of the same size have identical IR/CS/EM numbers. What you bought was longer target-assignment range.
There is a hard 2.5-second cooldown on every radar in the game. Reposition and narrow the cone between pings instead.
Ground-vehicle sensitivity is 0.25 on every radar — a quarter of ship detection. Use party markers, mission markers and visual search.
Narrow angle, reposition and scan one direction at a time instead of adding broad pings.
Cross-section piercing is fixed at 0.25 — terrain, asteroids and hulls occlude far more than expected. Change your angle rather than your component.
Return to live marker requirement and wait for named individual objectives before focus scanning.
Put ship on a controlled vector, assign an observer or leave before spending time in the interface.
Rewards and progression
↳ Fewer bad approaches and better decisions across every career.
↳ A component-buying rule that stops you paying for grades that do not change detection.
↳ Faster, safer resource and objective identification.
Departure checklist
□Know your radar size and its sensitivity tier.
□Confirm scan keybinds (V, hold-release V, T/4/5/6).
□Set fuel and exit route.
□Ping broad once and wait out the 2.5-second cooldown.
□Narrow cone.
□Stop at investigation range, outside your assignment window.
□Read which axis — IR, CS or EM — is actually returning.
□Compare context.
□Commit or disengage deliberately.
- 01
Understand what the radar is measuring
Every ship radar in the item database tracks three separate signature axes with independent sensitivities: infrared (IR — heat from engines, weapons and power plants), cross-section (CS — physical size and aspect) and electromagnetic (EM — powered systems, shields, active emitters). A fourth, "resource", is what mining and prospecting reads. This is why a large ship running cold can be harder to see than a small one running hot, and why powering down (U for all power, O for shields, P for weapons, I for engines) genuinely changes whether you are on someone's screen.
- 02
Stop shopping for a better radar grade
This is the most useful thing in the guide and it is counter-intuitive. Across all 63 radar components in the wiki item data, detection sensitivity is set purely by component size, not by grade or class: S0 reads IR 0.75 / CS 0.50 / EM 0.75; S1 is 0.80 across all three; S2 is 0.90; S3 and S4 are both 0.95 / 1.00 / 0.95 — identical to each other. A grade-A civilian S1 Abetti and a grade-D S1 Fleming have exactly the same sensitivity numbers. What grade does buy is target-assignment range: the S1 spread runs from 879 m on the Fleming to 1,173 m on the Abetti, S2 from about 1,449 m to 2,184 m, S3 from 2,691 m to 4,056 m, and the S4 BroadSpec-Max reaches 5,313 m. So grade decides how far out the ship will hand you a lock; size decides how much it can see at all.
⚠ Those are the numbers in the current item data, not a promise about a future balance pass. Re-check before buying an expensive component on the strength of a letter. - 03
Separate detection from identification
Hold V to enter Scan Mode, then hold and release V again to charge and fire a radar ping. Every radar in the data shares the same 2.5-second cooldown between pings, so spamming V buys you nothing — you get one picture every two and a half seconds regardless of what you paid for the component. A ping tells you something is present, not what it is or whether it is safe. Use a broad ping to establish direction, then reduce clutter before committing toward an unknown signature.
- 04
Narrow the scan cone
While in Scan Mode, adjust the scan cone angle when signatures overlap. A narrow cone needs deliberate aiming but prevents a distant cluster, ship and station from becoming one meaningless result. Once a contact resolves, T targets whatever is under the reticle, 4 cycles hostiles, 5 cycles all contacts and 6 cycles friendlies — and Left Alt + 1/2/3 pins a target you want to come back to, recalled with plain 1/2/3.
- 05
Remember ground vehicles are nearly invisible
Every radar in the data applies a flat 0.25 ground-vehicle sensitivity modifier — roughly a quarter of what the same radar gives you against a ship. A rover, ROC or Ursa parked on a surface is a genuinely poor radar contact, which cuts both ways: it is why a ground vehicle makes a good quiet staging asset, and why you should not expect a ping to find a downed teammate's buggy. Use visual search, party markers and the mission marker instead. Cross-section piercing is also fixed at 0.25 on every radar, so terrain and hull occlusion hide far more than most pilots expect.
- 06
Close only as far as needed
Approach at a speed and angle that preserve an exit. Stop at safe investigation range — for an S2 radar that is comfortably outside the ~1,200 m minimum assignment distance — run a focused scan and verify the result before entering a landing zone, asteroid field or combat bubble.
- 07
Read context with the result
Combine the scan with location, mission traffic, party markers and visual contacts. A cargo signature at a remote unmonitored outpost is a different decision from the same result at an armistice station.
- 08
Support the real job
For mining, press M for mining mode and wait for mission-specific markers before focus scanning; resource sensitivity is 1.0 on nearly every radar, the exceptions being the Industrial Surveyor and Observer lines. For exploration, mark verified locations. For combat or hauling, scan routes and exits before committing to a pad, elevator or narrow approach.
- 09
Break contact deliberately
When a signature is not worth the risk, turn away with fuel and orientation intact. The scan has succeeded by preventing a bad commitment.
Field notes
↳ Radar size sets sensitivity; radar grade sets target-assignment range. A grade-A and a grade-D of the same size see identically far.
↳ S3 and S4 radars have the same sensitivity figures — the jump from S3 to S4 buys assignment range, not detection.
↳ Every radar shares a 2.5-second ping cooldown. Spamming V does nothing.
↳ Ground vehicles return roughly a quarter of a ship's signature to the same radar — do not rely on a ping to find a rover.
↳ Three axes, three fixes: IR is heat (engines/weapons), EM is powered systems (shields with O, weapons with P), CS is your physical aspect. Turn the hull edge-on and power down to shrink all three.
↳ A strong signature is an investigation prompt, not a target lock.
↳ Scan from an angle that leaves a quantum or boost exit.
↳ Left Alt + 1/2/3 pins a contact so you can leave and come back to it.
Watch the route
Video mechanics can age between patches. Use the written route above as the current checklist.
Research sources
Route text is independently summarized and cross-checked against these references.
HitboTC - You Are Using Radar Wrong ↗Star Citizen Wiki - Scanning ↗api.star-citizen.wiki - radar component data ↗Keyboard controls reference on this site ↗RSI patch notes ↗
