The P-70 or "Lena-M" was a static 2D VHF radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 developed and operated by the former Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

.

Development

The P-70 early warning radar started development in 1960 and was completed in 1968 when the radar completed state testing and was accepted into service. The purpose of the radar was to provide long range early warning of aircraft over the vast territory of the Soviet Union in support of long range missile batteries. The P-70 was developed by the SKB Design Bureau, a division of State Plant No.197 named after V.I.Lenin, the predecessor of the current Nizhniy Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT). The P-70 had a production run of 11 radar units which were deployed to many different regions within the Soviet Union including Estonia

Estonia

Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

, Kotlas, Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 and Rybachy Peninsula in the north west, Kerch, the North-East Bank and Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

 in the south, Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

 and Russian Island in the east and Anadyr in the north-east.

Description

The P-70 radar was designed as a static structure mounted on a two story building which housed the radar and power supply equipment as well as facilities for the radar operators.

Additional support facilities could be operated up to 2 km from the radar building.

The radar used a single large antenna accomplishing both transmission

Transmission (telecommunications)

Transmission, in telecommunications, is the process of sending, propagating and receiving an analogue or digital information signal over a physical point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium, either wired, optical fiber or wireless...

 and reception with a surface area of 850 m2 and with dimensions of 48 by 25 meters. The antenna was of the open frame truncated parabolic

Parabolic antenna

A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or parabolic dish...

 variety and was scanned mechanically in azimuth using hydraulics

Hydraulics

Hydraulics is a topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the engineering uses of fluid properties. In fluid power, hydraulics is used for the generation, control,...

.

P-70 radars were dual-channel with the antenna working in both horizontal and vertical polarization. The radar was one of the first mass-produced radars to use pulse compression

Pulse compression

Pulse compression is a signal processing technique mainly used in radar, sonar and echography to increase the range resolution as well as the signal to noise ratio...

. The use of these techniques gave the P-70 excellent resolution (by a factor of 10 compared with the P-14

P-14 radar

The P-14 is a 2D VHF radar developed and operated by the former Soviet Union.-Development:...

) at long range, as well providing protection against active and passive interference. The radar operated on two frequencies, 140 MHz to observe low altitude targets (aircraft and missiles) and 70 MHz to observe high altitude targets (satellites). The P-70 also used a fully coherent transmitter and an MTI

MTI

MTI may stand for:* MTI, Message Type Indicator.* MTI Consulting, a consulting firm based in Bahrain.* MTI Consultancy, Machwuerth Team International Group, a consultancy based in Germany.* Magyar Távirati Iroda, a Hungarian news wire agency....

system capable of compensating for wind and other forms of passive interference such as chaff, overall the P-70 managed to achieve a low false alarm rate.

Operators

The P-70 radar were operated by the Soviet Union from 1968. The radars were not exported and are believed to be no longer in operation.
- Passed to successor states.