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Re: Victor, are vacuum tubes a good choice for an orbiting satellite armed with nukes?

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***Don't know, but saw something on Wings channel about MIGs using tubes.

Well, not today. The current state of the art in modern planes, including latest MIG's, is electronically sreered phase array radars, secure spread-spectrum communication, agile jammers, sensor fusion technology, HUD's and multi-function flat dispays, helmet-mounted sights - that sort of stuff. None of them can be built with tubes.

That tube story probaby goes back to the 1975 and Belenko's MIG-25 that landed in Japan. That one was still loaded with tubes. And they 'kind of' worked.

One funny element of the story was in the Belenko's statement that his plane had a 'jam-proof' radar. When the Western engineers heard that story, they smiled - only West had the technology for that. However, they had quickly discovered the tru nature of the Russian sledge hammer approach. When they lacked the processing resources, they simply installed on that plane the most powerful radar ever. So powerful that no jammer could overcome the direct return. So it was indeed 'jam proof' by Russian standards.

The plane was also made of steel and rusted, and its engines had to be rebuilt after just few Mach 3 dashes.

Lots of Western firms are now retrofitting the existing Russian planes with modern avionics (there is one huge market for that nowdays) and I can assure you no one is putting tubes there.

It is true that the Russians have been ahead of the West in understanding and protecting against the EMP and radiation pulse phenomena - thirty years ago that was a routine for them. I suspect today the situation is reversed - once the West accepts the need, there is no stopping its technology.


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  • Re: Victor, are vacuum tubes a good choice for an orbiting satellite armed with nukes? - Victor Khomenko 06:42:11 08/09/00 (0)


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