Unless this is bogus it’s from Reuters and other news agencies, or search at wikipedia, or on the Vera system.

PRAGUE, April 1 – The Czech defence ministry said on Thursday that it was trying to trace dozens of surplus Czech-made “Tamara” anti-aircraft radar systems after a report in Germany claimed some may have fallen into Yugoslav hands.

The Tamara, a web of electronic cylinders usually carried in heavy trucks, can allegedly detect the U.S. radar-evading “stealth” fighters which have been used in the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia.

One U.S. F-117 stealth fighter crashed during a raid last weekend but the pilot was rescued, and it is still not clear whether the aircraft was shot down or crashed in an accident.

The Czech Republic, part of the former Soviet bloc but a NATO member since last month, has been under close Western scrutiny over arms deals, especially the Tamara system, in the years leading up to joining the alliance.

Germany’s ZDF television on Wednesday quoted a British security analyst who cited U.S. intelligence sources as saying that a Tamara system which the former Czechoslovakia sold to Russia prior to 1990 had been passed on to Yugoslavia.

Czech defence ministry spokesman Milan Repka told Reuters on Thursday that tens of Tamaras and the predecessor “Ramona” had been discarded as part of a conventional forces reduction agreement after the end of the Cold War earlier this decade.

“The ministry is checking on whether any of the discarded (Tamaras and Ramonas) made their way to Yugoslavia,” he said.

Repka said the ministry was tracing documents on the surplus systems but could not verify if other countries may have re-exported them.

Tamara’s maker, the privatised but struggling HTT Tesla a.s. located in the eastern Czech town of Pardubice, has been accused on several occasions of trying to sell the Tamara to countries considered antagonistic to NATO.

But Czech government officials insist that their post-Communist arms export controls have prevented potential enemy armies from obtaining illicit arms and the Tamara.

A spokesman for the Czech intelligence service BIS told Czech Radio on Thursday that it was unaware of a Tamara being sent to any crisis area or hotspot in the world.

(Source: Reuters, April, 1999)

Greetz
Pleuris

I think there was an article about it in this forums magazine a few years ago. Yes it was a theory but is seems feesable to me.

And the Chines didn’t acually shot it down but had the passive radar equipment integrated in the FRY air defence system.
And the passive radar was situated in the chinese Ambassy.

Pssive radar

Before we only talk about the F-22 vs F-XX ‘s radar, my question is more about using background noise from every emitter that’s arround to get a fix on aircraft. Just like the system that was used by the Chinese to shoot down the F-117 in Serbia.

v-22

I do not entirely agree on that, yes the v-22 costs a lot, and there a lot of problems now, just like the days of the early jet fighter era, but if the figures from the manufactures are right, there are no helicopters that come close if we talk about cruise speed/ effective cargo load/ range. So what I is think we have to think that this is not just a helicopter with better performance but a new kind of asset, that is going to change the air assault concept. 🙂