Originally Posted by
ORAC
DESTROYED: Update on yesterday's AFU OWUAV strike on the "Konteyner" 29B6 OTHR (Over-The-Horizon Radar) in Mordovia, Mordor
«Regarding yesterday's attack on the "Konteynor" over-the-horizon radar located in Mordovia, they (katsaps) whine loudly that the attack was successful and now the station is disabled.
This is the only over-the-horizon tracking radar of its kind, which allowed detecting aerodynamic targets (according to propaganda) at a distance of up to 3,000 km. The loss of this radar will deprive Katsap of intelligence information and the possibility of early detection of tactical strike aircraft.
The factory where the "Container" was produced is already practically closed, and the long-range radar development institute has ceased to exist. This radar was developed over a period of ~ 5 years, and it took ~ 10-15 years to put it into service.» -- ZSU War News
Very sceptical about the utility of this 'RADAR'. Much more likely used as a long range communications broadcast transmitter.
Over the Horizon is notoriously difficult to master as it utilises the ionosphere to literally 'bounce' the radar signals over the horizon and then pick up the target reflections back over the return horizon. The complexities of doing this are enormous since the ionosphere is dynamic and requires real-time modelling using back-scatter sounders, ionospheric depth plotting, weather modelling, mini-radar mapping etc. Then there is the background clutter returned because the radar target return signal also gets mixed with land and sea clutter. Couple that with frequency hopping to compensate for weather conditions, different outbound and return signal distances (ionosphere is dynamic) with the radar return signal strength dropping as an inverse 4th power vs distance. Now couple that with the static TxRx aerials forming an active electronically scanned array. Oh...and did I mention the target is small and also moving fast and likely using ECM jamming to boot! All of this information must be signal processed and data fused in real-time to extract the target information then displayed. The signal frequencies required for OTH are low and hence resolution is not enough to get anywhere a near meaningful track for incoming low flying objects let alone altitude.
All this to say OTH is another Russian tub full of BS.