I seem to remember the Tornado having concrete radar.
Originally it had been part of the overall program to develop a radar that would fit into the nose cone, and the weight, as in all avionics design programs, was strictly specified, as was the size.
Well, we couldn’t buy fro the Yanks, would’ve dented our pride too much, despite them having something operational and meeting the spec, so we brushed the problem under the carpet and carried on regardless, after all, those clever people ar Marconi or somesuch were bound to come up with the goods in time for the first test flights.
Except they didn’t, nor did they manage to get it working in the commisioning flight, nor even when it was operational, but anyway, who needs some new fangled complicated doppler radar that’s capable of picking out things like tanks on the ground anyway.
So in the end a lump of very special concrete was fitted o the airframe would basically fly. it must have been special, because it weighed exactly the same as the spec for the original radar cone.
Dunno if they ever got it working or if they bought from the Yanks.
You maybe find it difficult to believe ?
It got nicknamed, the Blue Circle radar after the cement company.
Look on the link for 28 Feb 2000 column 58 about half way down.
http://www.publications.parliament…xt/00228-17.htm
This all follows the proud precedent set by the disastrously expensive and useless Nimrod airborne anti submarine project which was supposed to also be a platform for long distance airborne radar, in the end we bought US made AWACS.