SOVIET/RUSSIAN MODERN RADARS
Scope:1980s-2020s
Mod main goal is to bring radar systems from late cold war to modern days for better and more realistic detection and tracking of air targets,rather than using vintage systems in modern settings…
History
The 64N6E Big Bird is the key to much of the improved engagement capability, and ballistic missile intercept capability in the later S-300P variants. This system operates in the 2 GHz band and is a phased array with a 30% larger aperture than the US Navy SPY-1 Aegis radar, even accounting for its slightly larger wavelength it amounts to a mobile land based Aegis class package. It has no direct equivalent in the West.
Like other components of the S-300PM system, the 64N6E has a number of unique and lateral design features. The radar antenna is mounted on a cabin, in turn mounted on a turntable permitting 360 degree rotation. Unlike Western phased arrays in this class, the 64N6 uses a reflective phased array with a front face horn feed, the horn placed at the end of the long boom which protects the waveguides to the transmitters and receivers in the cabin. The beam steering electronics are embedded inside the antenna array, which has around 2700 phase elements on either face. This Janus faced arrangement permits the Big Bird to concurrently search two 90 degree sectors, in opposite directions, using mechanical rotation to position the antenna and electronic beam steering in azimuth and elevation. This design technique permits incremental growth in output power as the only components of the system which have to handle high microwave power levels are the waveguide and feed horn.
The 64N6E is a frequency hopper, and incorporates additional auxiliary antenna/receiver channels for suppression of sidelobe jammers – NIIP claim the ability to measure accurate bearing to jamming sources. The back end processing is Moving Target Indicator (MTI), and like the Aegis the system software can partition the instantaneous sector being covered into smaller zones for specific searches. To enhance MTI performance the system can make use of stored clutter returns from multiple preceding sweeps. Detection ranges for small fighter targets are of the order of 140 to 150 nautical miles for early variants. Per 12 second sweep 200 targets can be detected, and either six or twelve can be individually tracked for engagements.
The latest variant is the 91N6E developed for the S-400 Triumf / SA-21 system. It is known to be a fully digital design with a higher peak power rating than the 64N6E2 to accommodate the longer ranging 48N6E3 and 40N6E missiles.
History
he 96L6 was developed by KB Lira and is built by LEMZ. It was developed to replace the S-band 36D6 Tin Shield medium and high altitude acquisition radar, and the S-band 76N6 Clam Shell low altitude acquisition radar, with a design which is fully mobile and can redeploy as quickly as a ‘shoot and scoot’ missile battery. The 96L6 can be operating 5 minutes after coming to a stop.
The 96L6 is the standard battery acquisition radar in the S-400 / SA-21 system, and is available as a retrofit for the S-300PM/PMU/PMU1 and S-300PMU2 Favorit / SA-20 Gargoyle as a substitute for the legacy acquisition radars. The radar interfaces to the S-300PMU2 via a radiofrequency datalink or optical fibre cable, and interfaces to older missile batteries via a conventional cable. Interfaces are available for the 30N6E Tomb Stone, the 83M6 battery command post, and Integrated Air Defence System command posts including the Baikal-1E, Senezh-M1E, Osnova-1E and Pole-E. Links to the latter include radiofrequency datalinks or cables.
The radar is a frequency hopping design intended to provide high jam resistance and high clutter rejection. Up to five operator consoles are provided. The planar array antenna employs mechanical beamsteering in azimuth and electronic beamsteering in elevation. Several operating modes are available:
Full azimuth search involves rotating the aperture through 360° and performing vertical sweeps electronically. Medium to low altitude targets can be acquired by constraining the mainlobe elevation angle between -3° and +1.5°, with a 12 second sweep period, or -1.5° and +20°, with a 6 second sweep period. Target velocity is limited to a range of 30 m/s to 1200 m/s. Sector search typically limits sweeps to a 120° sector, with a high sector search between 0° and 60° elevation requiring 8 seconds, or a low sector search between 3° and +1.5° requiring 5.5 seconds. In these modes target velocities are limited to between 50 m/s and 2800 m/s. A dedicated low altitude search mode is also provided, with a 360 sweep performed in 6 seconds, for elevations between -3° and +1.5°.
Two basic configurations of the design are available. The first is the best known, the self propelled TM966E configuration, is carried on the MZKT-7930 chassis, itself derived from the MAZ-543 series first used with the S-300PS. This variant mounts the antenna head on a turntable and carries the equipment cabin, as well as an SEP-2L power generator. The second configuration is semimobile, and uses a pair of trailers, one mounting the antenna head and the SES-75M power supply, the other the equipment cabin, these being connected by up to 100 metres of cable. Accessory options include the 98E6U generator, tow tractors, and either the 24 metre 40V6M or 40 metre 40V6MD semi-mobile mast systems. The latter are carried by semi-trailer and typically towed by a MAZ-537 or other tractor.
