"Big Nose"

(USSR)

This air-to-air radar was carried only aboard Tu-28 and Tu-128 "Fiddler" interceptors; which operated mostly over Siberia and the Soviet far east. The system was given a dedicated operator as part of the "Fiddler"s 3-man crew. The large I-band radar had a range of 120NM in the search mode and 45NM in the track mode. Like many Soviet radars of it's generation, it had difficulty in finding low-flying targets in ground clutter. It had very little ECCM ability, which was not viewed as a problem as the "Fiddler" was primarily tasked with intercepting large American SAC bombers already detected by ground-based sensors.

The "Fiddler" was withdrawn in 1989, although some may have remained in inventory until 1992.