Talk:SCANFAR

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[edit] What failure?

Can someone describe what went wrong with this system? The article doesn't say, although it does mention it being a failure and later replaced. Maury 22:58, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

You got me there. It was a while back, when I added this stub. What I can recall is that the computer system had a very short MTBF and serious reliability issues probably due to the vacuum tubes of the day. Perhaps I overreached on the failure line, but I assumed it was a failure since it wasn't installed on any other ships and it was removed and replaced with conventional search radars (SPS-48 or SPS-49). I had no "real" sources, so I made a basic stub. One of the best articles I found was written for wargamers playing Harpoon. Page 6 is about SCANFAR. Though written for a game, it looks very comprehensive and covers many phased array radars. It's last paragraph summarizes the operational failure and subsequent removal of the system. I guess I could have summarized that, but it doesn't seem like a proper source. If you have additional information, feel free to add it. --Dual Freq 00:07, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
Yeah I was reading over that too. Not a lot of detail though. Whenever I read about this era stuff I always start wondering about the "computers" though. I mean on one had you had SAGE or DATAR, but then they also described the Sidewinder as having a computer too (6 tubes!). I wonder what this thing was really like? SAGE-like? If so, I can understand the failure modes! Maury 03:45, 30 January 2007 (UTC)