Aimed at the situation that the air to air operation modes of airborne fire control radar were complex and various, classified them into three types as searching, tracking, and compounding. Focused on the tactical uses, the signal characteristics and scanning patterns of 6 typical air to air operation modes such as Track While Scan, etc were studied. Through analyzing, summarizing, and comparing the typical characteristics of each mode, the feasibility of work mode identification was demonstrated, and the identification approach was put forward, which provided the support for the identification of typical air to air operation modes of the airborne fire control radar.