"Charles Talleyrand" wrote in message ...
How good was shipborne radar in the 60s against a 2003 airforce? For example, could a 1964 ship detect an incoming modern strike
before the explosions began in the face of modern ACM.

I ask both because I'm curious about the past and because there are navies out
there using old-fashioned technology.

As far as US shipboard radars go, the SPY-1, SPS-48, SPS-49, and
SPS-55 radars all began their lives in the '60s. Its the "front end"
signal processing that has seen the dramatic improvements. Today's
operators are largely freed from the task of cognitively interpreting
analog video.
Its been a double edged sword though. Living by symbology alone has
caused problems. It was a factor in the Vincennes shootdown of the
Airbus, the collision of a DDG (can't remember which one) with a
backing down CV, and the expenditure of a Harpoon on exactly nothing
in the Gulf of Sidra by the Tico in '86.