NPO Istok "Soyuz-Sintez" Experimental Radar program

overscan (PaulMM)

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Miguel Aresta said:
Does anyone have a photo on the "mysterious" Soyuz radar ? The one from the Soyuz programme headed by NPO Istok ..

It appears so.


80 years of the Soviet Union was the best radar, but not the rank and file charges later NIIP meal or two, but Istok СИНТЕЗ series of radar, then When the radar is successfully developed, it can be said that the above two streets are smashed!

The radar sample and the photos of the experiment at that time, the general situation of the aircraft modified with Figure-128 is that the Soviet airborne radar development was monopolized by Fazoton and NIIP, similar to the current 14 and the thunder and lightning yard pattern, NPO Istok provided them with microwave devices, but in the mid-1970s, with the support of Shaojin, the father of the Soviet microelectronics industry, Istok cooperated with the Pennant Design Bureau, which developed the missile seeker at that time, to ?Союз – Синтез Name the development of a new type of airborne radar (Shao Jin was very dissatisfied with the Soviet Union 's rigid system at the time, leading to the backwardness of Soviet electronic technology, encouraging innovation, so they dared to engage in this plan ). The radar project started in the mid-1970s, which is the "Myech" airborne radar project in the Su-27 project, because the lag of that project caused Simonov to overthrow the early design and restarted. Decided to encourage innovation and start a new generation of airborne radar. The most classic product they developed successfully was СИНТЕЗ-10, probably in the mid-1970s. In the process of developing this airborne radar, Istok used its own technological advantages to create “multi-beam” transparency in the world. Technology such as traveling wave tube, ultra-low noise small electrostatic discharger and three-dimensional large-angle antenna hydraulic system. In the development of airborne radar, the first result in the Soviet Union was obtained: based on Soviet domestic components. The airborne radar with programmable digital signal processing function was developed. When the airborne radar was tested for flying, the trajectory processing method was used in the "target search" state to verify the calculated value of the target discovery distance. The target area of the square meter is more than 200 kilometers away; the ground is real-time imaged with a synthetic aperture antenna with a resolution of 7 meters.

This radar code is "synthesis", which means the experimental synthetic aperture technology. The radar is designed and tested successfully in the 80s, but the radar itself is advanced in technology. Unfortunately, the radar is too advanced and exceeds the design requirements of the Soviet Air Force.(!? Really, the Soviet Air Force feels too advanced and a little uncomfortable), and more importantly, it touched the breasts of the two old big companies, and it’s not fun (like today’s domestic, halfway to kill a bite, Changhong) Also said that the airborne radar, 14 and the Thunder and Light Institute is not good.) Under the system at that time, it was put on the shelf and was blocked. Later, Istok was no longer involved in airborne radar. Later, Istok went to China to sell products and technology, which revealed this inside story, but at that time, the domestic cooperation with Fazoton did not happen.

According to the decision of the government military committee, Istok developed the development of airborne radar. The most sophisticated electronic products were developed and produced in the electronics industry's enterprises – airborne radar for the new generation of fighters.
The "Синтез-10" airborne radar was successfully tested for the flight test.
In the process of developing airborne radar, the world first created:
- multi-note "transparent" traveling wave tube;
- ultra-low noise small electrostatic discharger;
- three-dimensional large-angle antenna hydraulic system, scanning speed 300 degrees / sec, acceleration 3000 degrees / second 2.
In the "Синтез-10" airborne radar development process, the former Soviet Union for the first time and obtained the following results:
- Component made entirely based on airborne radar developed with a programmable digital signal processing function;
- the onboard When the radar is tested for flying, the trajectory processing method is adopted in the "target search" state, and the calculated value of the target discovery distance is confirmed. For the target with a reflection area of 5 square meters, the distance is more than 200 kilometers;
- using the synthetic aperture antenna to the ground Real-time imaging was performed with a resolution of 7 meters.
The main combination of airborne synthetic aperture radar:
- Antenna. The X-band flat slot single-pulse antenna uses a unique salt bath welding process. The antenna has a diameter of 960 mm, a thickness of 50 mm and a weight of 13 kg. The antenna gain is greater than 37.5 dB within 6% bandwidth, and the far side lobe rms value does not exceed -50 dB.
- Transmitter. The modular multi-mode wideband transmitter uses a high-power multi-injection "transparent" traveling wave tube amplification chain with an output pulse power of 3.5 kW.
- Signal preprocessor. The programmable signal preprocessor can perform 512-point fast Fourier transform in 340 microseconds with an instantaneous dynamic range of 90 dB and a sidelobe level of minus 60 dB.
- Radar signal processor. The radar signal processor uses a single board machine with a processing speed of one million times per second.

Due to the high cost and complicated technology, the Soviet high-level finally chose the old but lower cost N001, N019 as the configuration of su27 and MiG-29, N001 even after 2010, equipped with Russian SU30M2
 

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Now, the NIIP version of this story is that the USSR simply could not produce reliably the planar array antenna for Myech at that time, which led to the Myech borrowing the N019 antenna as a stop gap. It seems likely that two major factors against Istok's radar would have been cost and difficulty of production.
 
Great Job Paul, for finding the image.

I emailed GRPZ Ryazan, which supposedly manufactured the prototype for the same purpose but to no avail. but finally. it's available.

again. excellent work. Thanks.
 
Great finding Paul (
According to Istok - I was interested with this topic.
It seems that this is more company that produces component, mainly microwave technology (Klystrons, TWT) etc that are used in many systems like S-300, -400, Zaslon, Saphir-23ML and many others.

http://www.gastroscan.ru/literature/authors/7689

According to БРЛС «Синтез-10» - it looks just magical like 90-tees design.
And I think that this was developed in early 80-tees, and was base for further radars like Zuk N-010, N-011 etc.
As it was developed in late 70/early 80 - it was just too late to introduce them into fighters that enters to duty (83/84)

Based on the same program there was developed ARGH seeker called «Синтез-20» that was base for seekers from R-77:

"В ходе НИЭР «Синтез» впервые в СССР была создана теоретическая база и разработаны бортовые РЛС с цифровой обработкой сигнала. С помощью БРЛС «Синтез-10» впервые в СССР в 80-е годы было выполнено картографирование земной поверхности синтезированной апертурой в реальном масштабе времени

Важнейшим результатом НИЭР «Синтез» явились разработанные на предприятии в 80-е годы и серийно выпускаемые в настоящее время лучшие в своем классе АРГС для ракеты класса «воздух-воздух» типа РВВ-АЕ"

Here is more information:

https://www.proza.ru/2016/07/05/1862

"Onboard radar "Synthesis-10"
The beginning of the deployment of the radar itself in the Istok began the meeting in Zelenograd in 1979. To prepare the materials for the meeting, Sergei Ivanovich Rebrov recruited some of the employees of department 340, headed by the head of the department, S.А. Zaitsev and created a few years before this department 270 (head Gurtovoy VI), soon transformed into department 7 (head Rusakov V.N.). Actually, this was the beginning of work on radar in the "Source", as a holistic integrated direction, and not just the receiving and transmitting modules and antennas. The decision on the formulation of the experimental research work "Soyuz-Sintez" on the terms of reference developed by the Research Institute of Aviation Systems, of which E. Fedosov was the director, was made less than a year later.
The chief designer of the Sintez-1 radar, and then the Sintez-10 became S.I. Rebrov The head unit for its creation was determined by Department 1 (Head Lopin M.I.). It also led the development of the transmitter, for which, for the first time in the world, multipath "transparent" traveling-wave tubes (compartment 1) and low-noise small-sized electrostatic amplifiers (compartment 8, head Kantyuk S.P.) were created. The layout of the entire product was carried out by the chief designer of the department 1 Immigrant VN. For the development of the coordinator, department 1 attracted OKB "Voskhod" (Pavlovo, Gorky region), direct development was carried out by the leading designer of this company Mokhov B.D. Specially created in the department 1 testing department headed by Voskoboyniky M.F. It was entrusted with the organization of all work on the creation of radar and its testing.
Wave-slot antenna with a diameter of about 80 centimeters was created by M.A. Ivanov, head of the laboratory of the department 7. Gritsuk R.V., for soldering this antenna in department 1, the laboratory head. Special technology was created using salt baths.
A very difficult task was to create a GDB, a block of master oscillators, which provided a coherent frequency grid to the entire transmit and receive path. This task was solved by department 17 (chief II Brodlenko, chief designer Afanasyev).
The whole complex of works was carried out by department 7 (head V.N. Rusakov) - practically the entire analog reception path was developed by its staff (department Peregonova S.A., laboratory Levitin V.I.)."
 
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"A special role in creating radar had to play a digital complex. Created by that time in the USA, a programmable signal processor (PTS) allowed to significantly expand the functionality of the radar, while simultaneously significantly reducing the amount of equipment through the use of software. The development of domestic PPP by the decision of the Ministry of Electronic Industry was entrusted to the Voronezh Design Bureau Progress of the Processor plant (director I.Talov) of the Electronics Production Association (director B. Tolstoy). The development department was headed by VA Dyboy, and the direct development of the teaching staff, called Kedr, was conducted in the laboratory of Kositsyn V.G. The structure of the PPP was focused on the main operation in signal processing - the fast Fourier transform and the implementation of pipeline processing of signal streams, in which each next operation was performed without waiting for the completion of the previous one. This made it possible to increase the processing speed many times, so that it became possible to obtain the results of processing large arrays of signals in real time. For this structure, it was necessary to develop a special chipset of high integration, which in itself was a very difficult and time-consuming task. Department Dyboya V.A. handled it successfully.
Division 340, which was engaged in the development of CAD and CAMU until that time, was transformed into department 34, and soon, by order of the ministry, the head of department 34 S.A.Zaitsev was appointed Chief Designer of the Synthesis-10 digital product complex.
The heart of the airborne radar is a digital computing complex, including all system software, was developed under the leadership of A.N. Korolev, who headed department 341 of division 34 at that time. For the first time in our country, a radar data processor was created - a multi-machine computing complex based on single-board computers "Electronics-81" with a total capacity of one million operations per second, with serious system software (the operating system was developed by lead engineer Shishkin Vlad world Igorevich) and advanced test tools.
The department 343 (head A. Potapov) of department 34, which was responsible for developing the requirements for all radar units, as well as creating the entire digital complex, including all applied software and algorithmic software, will be described below.
The creation of the radar took three years. Another year he spent working on it at the NIIAS anechoic hall, conducting half-natural modeling and pre-flight tests, and another six months to successfully conducting flight tests at the flying laboratory, under which the Tu-154 aircraft was specially equipped, in which the nose compartment where the radar was located closed radio transparent fairing.
On March 30, 1985, the Sintez-10 radar was delivered to a flying laboratory, a month and a half was spent on the placement of auxiliary equipment, and in May, first test flights and then test flights were sent.
On September 30, 1985, the flight tests of the Sintez-10 radar were completed, and on December 30, 1985, the Act on the completion of the work on the Sintez-10 radar was signed. (...)

Separate technical solutions and the radar base element base were then used by radio industry enterprises in subsequent development of radar systems, and for the development of the new Istok signal processor it prepared a detailed technical task.
Further substantial development of this direction was assumed, and by 1985 a special building was constructed for such works with an extensive radiobazech hall and an integrated modeling stand. In the same year, department 343 moved to the new building.

Unfortunately, this whole synthesizing epic of creating a radar station ended much more rapidly than it began. (...)
 
Now, the NIIP version of this story is that the USSR simply could not produce reliably the planar array antenna for Myech at that time, which led to the Myech borrowing the N019 antenna as a stop gap. It seems likely that two major factors against Istok's radar would have been cost and difficulty of production.
What do you think made this radars array so difficult to produce compared to say N010 which I believe had its first test flight a year after in 1986 or early N011 which was similar in size and only a few years newer. The specs for this radar are very impressive, in terms of range and SAR resolution they are better then N011m.
 
The Myech was tested from 1978. The antenna was electronically scanned in elevation which made it pretty ambitious. In testing it was found to have large side lobes. Overall the radar range was less than half the required value. Design features of the antenna imposed limitations on tracking targets at high angle rates and scan area limitations. In 1982, it was decided to replace the troubled antenna with a scaled-up version of the N019's antenna. In August 1982 a Myech was fitted with a 720mm twist-cassegrain antenna borrowed directly from the N019 and showed considerable improvement. By October 1982 a 1074mm twist-cassegrain antenna was fitted and combined with other changes to processors and other components produced much improved results.

In early 1983, the decision was taken to go with the proven technology for now and continue work on slotted arrays and phased arrays for future implementation, work which led to the N011 and N011M for future improved Su-27 models.

The twist-cassegrain antenna was a mature technology which the USSR already could mass produce (Sapfir-23/25) and was very well designed with low sidelobes.

N010 and N011 never made mass production. There's a big difference between building a few prototypes and churning 100s or 1000s out in a factory. NiIP skipped to phased array designs like Bars and Irbis, which drew on their Zaslon experience. NIIR don't seem to have sold much of anything.
 
Wonder why they just didn't scale down Zaslon. Su-270 was big enough to have space for ll necessary equipment. And by that time there were better computers than Argon-15a with higher level of integration, saving precious weight.
 
In related news, KRET's Krasukha-4 EW module IRL 257 has been recovered from its ride-a KAMAZ 6350 that was likely destroyed along with an R-330 Zhitel....as per The Drive. The current conflict has that windfall...with Ukrainian assets likely to answer other tech questions as well.
 
Wonder why they just didn't scale down Zaslon. Su-270 was big enough to have space for ll necessary equipment. And by that time there were better computers than Argon-15a with higher level of integration, saving precious weight.
Zaslon was three times the weight of the N001. The avionics suite was already seriously overweight.
 
In related news, KRET's Krasukha-4 EW module IRL 257 has been recovered from its ride-a KAMAZ 6350 that was likely destroyed along with an R-330 Zhitel....as per The Drive. The current conflict has that windfall...with Ukrainian assets likely to answer other tech questions as well.
The Zhitel han't been recovered, just filmed by a UAV, completely destroyed.
 
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