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Radars as a mechanic were added into War Thunder in Update 1.87 "Locked On".
Prior to Update 1.87, radars were depicted by a more simple mechanic exclusively for ground SPAA units. It allowed SPAA units that historically used radar to track targets to have a simple targeting reticle appear in Realistic and Simulator battles. However, with Update 1.87, this feature was added to both aircraft and ground vehicles that used radar to search, detect, and lock-on. Naval radars were introduced in the release of the Soviet naval research tree during Update 1.79 solely as an air-detection radars (including both: search and tracking radars). No naval surface-search radars are available, and there is no way to inspect the details of the naval radars in X-ray view the same way it's possible to do it for aerial or SPAA radars.