Air Weapons

Early Warning (1965)

Tupolev

Tu-126 'Moss'

Tu-126 'Moss'

Not to be left behind US development of airborne early warning (AEW) platforms, the Soviet Union became interested in designing its very own such aircraft, the Tupolev Tu-126 'Moss'. The Tu-126 was based on former Aeroflot conversions of the company's own Tu-114 civil airliner mounted with a rotating radome in addition to an inflight-refuelling probe as well as numerous communications, radar, and signal processing equipment in the former passenger cabin. Not much is known about this highly secretive aircraft other that it was believed to be considerably less capable than Western equivalents, being unable to detect cruise missiles or small aircraft flying at low altitude, although leased units by India were rated favorably in the 1971 war against Pakistan. Still, the Tu-126 served with Soviet air defense and naval forces until their retirement in 1984 by which time the more capable A-50 had replaced it.

Development of a Soviet AWACS aircraft was entrusted to Tupolev in 1958 and was originally intended to be based on the Tu-95 or Tu-116 after settling on the more ample Tu-114 airliner which first flew in converted form sometime in 1967 as the Tu-126. No other versions were built.

Preceded by:

None

Succeeded by:

A-50 'Mainstay' (1984)

Datafile

DesignTu-126
Code NameMoss
TypeEarly Warning
Year1965
Crew14-15
Dimensions
Length57.30 m
Height16.050 m
Wing Span51.10 m
Wing Arean/a
Weight
Empty100,000 kg
Maximum100,000 kg
Wing Loading321.4 kg/m²
Performance
Speed850 km/h
Ceiling11,000 m
Range7,800 km
Powerplant
Engine4 x NK-12MV
Kuznetzov
14,795 kgf
Thrust/Weight0.54
Sensors
RadarRat Jack
Armament
Guns-
Payload-
Production
Built12
Total12