[q4814]

It's possible that the computers didn't run on tubes but rather the radar systems. The two may have been conflated. I believe I've read that tubes are still quite common in high-power radio transmitters because they're more effective than solid-state components. Still a bad situation, but maybe not as sensational as it appears on the surface.

[russell]

I looked at several articles before I posted and I saw several mentions of "computers and radars", which matches my recollection from the time. The computers were a special purpose design, not commercially available systems, so they could have been controllers as opposed to large data processors, but the controversy was definitely about computers and not about the high-power tubes used by the radars themselves.

[jweather]

Radar and satellite systems still use traveling-wave tubes in the RF signal chain. The reference to tubes could also be the radar displays, which were traditionally vector CRTs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling-wave_tube

[protomyth]

Russia used tubes in a number of fighter radars because they could use a lot of power to burn through opponent's ECM.

[bch]

ECM is presumably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_countermeasure ...

(if dear reader, like me, had no idea what ECM meant in this context).

[njharman]

Also less prone to EMP from nukes.

[protomyth]

True, also a well understood technology that they would have no trouble producing.

[bigiain]

I bet it's only "well understood" by a very small group of people in 2015.

On the other hand, at least it's _possible_ to make your own at home: http://makezine.com/2008/01/07/make-your-own-vacuum-tube/

I somehow doubt there's many talented amateurs assembling MOSFETs in their garages...

[protomyth]

Perhaps I should have said "institutional experience", but the number of people creating fighter radars at the time were not exactly numerous.