P-70 radar

P-70 Radar
Country of origin Soviet Union
Introduced1968
No. built11
TypeEarly Warning
FrequencyVHF
Range2300 km
Altitude160 km
Azimuth360 degrees
Elevation20 degrees
Power17 MW 20 kW average

The P-70 or "Lena-M" was a static 2D VHF radar developed and operated by the former Soviet Union.

Development

The P-70 early warning radar started development in 1960[1] and was completed in 1968 when the radar completed state testing and was accepted into service.[2] The purpose of the radar was to provide long-range early warning of aircraft over the vast territory of the Soviet Union in support of long-range missile batteries. The P-70 was developed by the SKB Design Bureau, a division of State Plant No. 197 named after V.I.Lenin, the predecessor of the current Nizhniy Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT).[2] The P-70 had a production run of 11[3] radar units which were deployed to many different regions within the Soviet Union including Estonia, Kotlas, Lithuania and Rybachy Peninsula in the north-west, Kerch, the North-East Bank and Azerbaijan in the south, Mongolia and Russian Island in the east and Anadyr in the north-east.[1]

Description

The P-70 radar was designed as a static structure mounted on a two-story building which housed the radar and power supply equipment as well as facilities for the radar operators.

Additional support facilities could be operated up to 2 km from the radar building.[1]

The radar used a single large antenna accomplishing both transmission and reception with a surface area of 850 m2 and with dimensions of 48 by 25 meters.[1] The antenna was of the open-frame truncated parabolic variety and was scanned mechanically in azimuth using hydraulics.

P-70 radars were dual-channel, with the antenna working in both horizontal and vertical polarization. The radar was one of the first mass-produced radars to use pulse compression.[3] The use of these techniques gave the P-70 excellent resolution (by a factor of 10 compared with the P-14[1]) at long range, as well providing protection against active and passive interference. The radar operated on two frequencies, 140 MHz to observe low-altitude targets (aircraft and missiles) and 70 MHz to observe high-altitude targets (satellites). The P-70 also used a fully coherent transmitter and an MTI system capable of compensating for wind and other forms of passive interference such as chaff. Overall, the P-70 managed to achieve a low false alarm rate.[1]

Operators

The P-70 radar was operated by the Soviet Union from 1968. The radars were not exported and are believed to be no longer in operation.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Страж советского неба (in Russian). Воздушно-космическая оборона. 2003–2009. Archived from the original on 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
  2. ^ a b "Nizhniy novgorod research institute of radio engineering". NNIIRT. 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
  3. ^ a b c A. Zachepitsky (2000). "VHF (Metric Band) Radars from Nizhny Novgorod Research Radiotechnical Institute". IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine. 15 (June): 9–14. doi:10.1109/62.847925.