According to reports, people have always believed that Russia’s electronics industry is very backward, especially cutting-edge electronic technologies such as aviation and aerospace, which lag behind the world’s advanced level. However, the Russians do not think that their electronics industry is relatively backward at all, and claim that their radar performance is very advanced and can be on par with similar Western airborne radars. But I am afraid no outsider will agree with this statement.
Due to financial difficulties and restrictions on R&D funds, Russia's electronics industry and chip technology lag far behind the world's advanced level. The field of military electronic products is even further behind, with 99% of military electronic components relying on imports. Russia's latest 11356R guided missile frigate has most of the command system hardware equipment imported, especially computer equipment, produced by the American company IBM. Russia's latest T-90 tank is equipped with a Catherine thermal imager from the French company Thales. After being sanctioned by the West, it was forced to reinstall an old-fashioned low-light night vision device. The Russian Su-30SM fighter jets were originally equipped with French original Thales laser diffraction head-up displays and Sigma integrated navigation systems. After Western sanctions, they were replaced with old-fashioned head-up displays and navigation systems.
The performance of the airborne radar of Soviet/Russian fighter jets has lagged behind from the beginning. At the beginning, the Soviet Union clearly lagged behind the West in the fields of electronics industry and precision machining. Therefore, the airborne radars it developed had problems such as large size, heavy weight, and low performance. The most famous and typical example occurred on the Su-27 fighter jet. For example, the N001 radar equipped on the Su-27 fighter jet is huge and weighs up to 980 kilograms, which is several times heavier than Western radars.