Bars radar
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| Country of origin | Russia |
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| Type | Slotted Planar array/PESA |
| Frequency | X band |
The Bars (Leopard) is a family of Russian (former USSR) all-weather multimode airborne radars developed by the Tikhomirov Scientific Research Institute of Instrument Design for multi-role combat aircraft such as the Su-27 and the MiG-29.
The first member of Bars series radar was N011, which was originally an X band Pulse-Doppler radar developed for the Su-27. In this original N011 form, it deploys an mechanically scanned planar array with 960 mm diameter, ±85 degrees scan sector. The peak output power is 8 kW with an average of 2 kW. N011 features a low noise UHF input amplifier, and fully digitized signal processing unit using reprogrammable digital computers.
The original requirement of simultaneously tracking 20 targets and engaging 8 of the 20 tracked proved impossible to achieve at the time due to Soviet technological bottleneck, but N011 is able to simultaneously track 13 target and engage 4. This is subsequently upgraded to tracking 15 targets and engaging 6 of 15 tracked simultaneously. The maximum air-to-air detection range is over 400 km when used as an airborne early warning role, and when used for intercepting role, the range against a typical fighter sized target is 140 km against a head-on, and 65 km tail-on.
For air-to-surface mode, N011 has five air-to-ground modes and four maritime modes, including ground mapping, terrain-following radar and terrain-avoidance modes. The maximum air-to-surface mode is over 200 km against aircraft carrier type of target.
The second member of Bars radar family is N011M, a radar used an electronically scanned slotted planar antenna but with the experience gained from the development of the N007 Zaslon. In an effort to improve performance the antenna design was changed to a multi-channel passive electronically scanned array (PESA). The design of the N011M bars antenna like the earlier N007 antenna consists of two separate electronically controlled arrays, an X band radar and a L band IFF transponder with a total weight of 100 kg and a diameter of 960 mm. The radar has a peak power output of 4-5 kW and is capable of positioning beams in 400 microseconds, a huge advantage over mechanically scanned radar. The Bars radar can be fixed in position to give a scanning sector of ±70 degrees in azimuth and ±45 degrees in elevation. To improve scan coverage, the radar can also be mounted on electromechanical drives, and in this case, the scanning sector is expanded to ±90 degrees.
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