the dish is so close to the VF's body that I wonder if it's actually working at all...
The aim of the dish is to recieve echos. If the body is between echos and the dish, it won't work.
The real awacs have a dish that is not glued on the body of the plane. Also, awacs are flying high and they detect planes and enemies below. So, in space, what's "below" and "above" when you fly every where.
It should use a sphere radar instead to look in all directions. i am not specialist I might be wrong but if you look at the planes noce radars, they have a 3D angle, and, it correspond to the front of the plane, not their back angle...
Can some one confirm?