26. The Russians Were Especially Worried About Their Lag in Aerial Radar Tech
Radar technology – specifically, downward-looking radar technology – was a key area in which the USSR lagged behind the West. By the 1970s, America had heavily invested in maneuverable cruise missiles that could fly extremely low to the ground, and thus fly below Soviet radar installations. Likewise, American warplanes were equipped with advanced avionics features that allowed them to fly beneath Soviet radar. The US could take down the Russians with a surprise attack that utilized low flying cruise missiles and warplanes. That would decapitate Moscow’s command and control, and wreck its ability to retaliate, before anybody knew what had happened.
One way to avoid that was to develop downward-looking radars: radars mounted on Soviet aircraft, that could look down and spot objects below as they moved close to the ground. The problem, however, was that Soviet technology in the 1970s could not produce radars that were able to do that. To address that vulnerability thus became a matter of utmost importance to the Soviets. One of the key entities tasked with that was the Scientific Research Institute for Radio Engineering, which went by its Soviet acronym, NIIR.