I know that several members are interested in the history of the Chernobyl Duga radar array, as am I - but this newly-released YouTube video adds a new dimension, and one which, as a computer guy, really brings the whole project to life.
Anyone who has ever operated, maintained or programmed mainframe computers from the 60's 70's or 80's, or programmed in assembly language will likely find this particularly interesting.
All credit for this wonderful short documentary goes to it's creators - the 'Chornobyl Family' YouTube channel. It is far and away the best Duga-related video I've ever seen, and gives a fascinating insight into Russian computing during that period - culminating in the production of the ES-106x mainframes - clones of the legendary IBM/370 series.
Reading between the lines, one of the reasons why the whole Duga project ultimately failed was because the number of simultaneous mathematical calculations required to predict ballistic missile trajectories in real-time was simply beyond the K340A.
Have a watch here: https://youtu.be/kHiCHRB-RlA?si=e4fmyHvXLasxuGLA
