Radar pods

[pyro-manic]

I am currently building a Skyraider, for the Argentine Navy during the Falklands war, and I am unsure as to whether to fit it with a radar pod. The Skyraider carried the WW2-era AN/APS-4 pod early in it's career, but what would be appropriate for the Falklands period? Would the APS-4 still be useful in this timeframe, or is there a feasible alternative? Or should i just say that the Spads are directed by another aircraft with a surface-search radar?

[Weaver]

Useful page about radars including this one:

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/radar-10.htm

Assuming that performance was realised in service, it looks like a pretty useful set to me, and for an installed weight of 150lbs, it's excellent. Many WWII radarswere still in use in 1982 (not least in our Shackeltons!) so it doesn't seem unreasonable that Argentine could have still been using updated ones.

More info: http://www.duxfordradiosociety.org/restoration/equip/aps4/aps4.html

EDIT:

There was a much updated set called AN/APS-19 which was used into the 1950s in a similar pod on Skyraiders as well as other types:

http://radioheaven.homestead.com/AN-APS-19.html

EA-1F Skyraiders were using AN/APS-19 as late as 1968 in Vietnam, together with a much larger pod holding an AN/APS-38 radar, which was the search radar seen above the cockpit on the S-2 Tracker.

This pic shows AN/APS-19 on the left wing and AN/APS-38 on the right:

[Jschmus]

Useful page about radars including this one:

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/radar-10.htm

Assuming that performance was realised in service, it looks like a pretty useful set to me, and for an installed weight of 150lbs, it's excellent. Many WWII radarswere still in use in 1982 (not least in our Shackeltons!) so it doesn't seem unreasonable that Argentine could have still been using updated ones.

More info: http://www.duxfordradiosociety.org/restoration/equip/aps4/aps4.html

Those radars on the Shacks (APS-20) were pulled from Skyraider AEW.1s when the type was retired in the 1970s.

[rickshaw]

Useful page about radars including this one:

http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/radar-10.htm

Assuming that performance was realised in service, it looks like a pretty useful set to me, and for an installed weight of 150lbs, it's excellent. Many WWII radarswere still in use in 1982 (not least in our Shackeltons!) so it doesn't seem unreasonable that Argentine could have still been using updated ones.

More info: http://www.duxfordradiosociety.org/restoration/equip/aps4/aps4.html

I thought those came from Gannet AEWs, which in turn had come from Skyraiders?

What has to be remember is that the bulkiest bit of most radar systems is the aerial.  It determines range and sensitivity.  The actual transmitter and reciever stuff was, even by the 1970s, quite compact.

Those radars on the Shacks (APS-20) were pulled from Skyraider AEW.1s when the type was retired in the 1970s.

[philp]

Skyraiders in Korea and 'Nam did not carry them but they were based not too far off the coast and had lots of other assets to carry out that aspect.

During the Falklands the Argentines had a greater distance to go and didn't know where their targets (carriers) were hiding.  But, they also had Trackers and Neptunes to use.

[Weaver]

Skyraiders in Korea and 'Nam did not carry them but they were based not too far off the coast and had lots of other assets to carry out that aspect.

They were still available and servicable though, as the EA-1F use shows.

During the Falklands the Argentines had a greater distance to go and didn't know where their targets (carriers) were hiding.  But, they also had Trackers and Neptunes to use.

That raises the possibility of them having spare AN/APS-38 sets for the Trackers which means they could, in theory, fit one to a Skyraider to make a more survivable "strike leader". Argentinian techies were good: these are the guys who codged together a land-based Exocet launcher from naval hardware and damn near sank a destroyer with it (HMS Glamorgan).

[pyro-manic]

Thanks for all your input, guys. I think I'm going to do, as Weaver says, a "bodged" setup, as my model is a four-seater "E" model Spad, so there's room for the GIBs and the worky bits for the radar.

[Weaver]

Another, later possibility might be an Agave radar as seen on the Super Etendard. The installation on the latter has a fairly big aerial, but it can have rather smaller ones, as seen on the Indian Jaguar Ms and some Mirage 5/F1s. It's got podding "form" too: when BAC wanted to put Exocet capability on the Jaguar International demonstrator, they installed an Agave in the nose of a centreline droptank: worked a treat. I can't find any size/weight data for the Agave, but it's definately on the small/light side.