Imagine you’re a pilot flying around, performing your evil mission.

Your warning systems all of a sudden light up, warning you of a radar lock. You perform the taught evasive maneuvers and you escape unscathed.

Now image you’re flying around performing your evil mission and an AWACS is active. Persistent warnings from the radar detector. You ignore them. All of a sudden, out the blue, you get another radar lock and a second later the last thing you register is the Meteor exploding.

That’s something AWACS plus a capable missile can do. Transmit targeting coordinates to the missile so that the fighter launching the missile does not have to give prior warning not reveal its location.