Captured Radars
Yes, the Skyguards are still in use to monitor low flying, and used as threat emitters at Spadeadam, before that they, along with the 30mm guns were operated by a RAuxAF Regt Sqn at Waddington. As for the bigger radars, the TPS-43F was put into RAF Service as the Radar Type 99, operated by 144SU at Wattisham from 1984/5, TCW at Brize Norton from 1989 and 1ACC at Boulmer from 1995 as part of the Mobile Radar Reserve force with deployments all over the place. (Had it deployed to my unit as a gap filler during the early 1990’s, The operator cabin was like a freezer, and it had purple CRT displays which looked really weird compared with orange ones found on most RAF Radars). It was phased out in the late 1990s while deployed on Cyprus. As for the TPS-44, It was planned to be put into RAF service as the Radar Type 100, however for some reason this never happened, and the only time I ever saw any of it was the antenna platform at RAF Locking in the mid 1980's. One story I would love to hear is what ‘Equipment Denial’ actions were carried out on the two big radar’s by the Argentines before the surrender. (I’ve heard rumours about nasty stuff being poured into cooling systems and timing boards going under the hammer).
Last edited by MAINJAFAD; 5th Dec 2008 at 18:48.