Over-the-Horizon Targeting (OTHT)

Over-the-horizon targeting (OTHT) is the use of off-board sensors to detect, identify, and provide targeting-quality data on contacts beyond a launching ship’s own radar horizon, so it can engage at the full range of weapons such as anti-ship cruise missiles. Cueing comes from aircraft, helicopters, satellites, other ships, and surveillance networks, relayed over tactical data links. Because a missile like Harpoon outranges the curvature-limited shipboard radar, OTHT is what lets surface forces realize that range; it depends on a shared, correlated picture.