The system was used, almost unchanged, as the basis for the Red Steer tail warning radar used in the Handley Page Victor and Avro Vulcan strategic bombers.
When the English Electric Lightning project first began, existing aircraft interception (AI) radar systems were generally just more powerful versions of their World War II counterparts, using newer magnetron and klystron-based microwave tubes and more sensitive receivers, but otherwise using the same mechanical scanning concepts and simplified processing that generally required a dedicated crewmember to operate.
AIRPASS was very advanced, so much so that some in the Radar Research Establishment (RRE) felt that there was the possibility that the system would not mature in time for it to be used on the aircraft, if at all.
[3] The system was otherwise conventional, using a spiral-scan pattern essentially identical to that of the wartime AI Mark VIII but running at significantly higher speed of 1,000 rpm and "nodding" in and out from dead ahead to 45 degrees off-axis in 18 revolutions and then back again, a complete scan requiring about 2+1⁄4 seconds.
[3] In 1955, the Royal Aircraft Establishment published a requirement for a new tail warning radar for the V bombers that had greater performance than the existing Orange Putter that had been developed for the English Electric Canberra.
The small size and completely compartmentalized design of the AI.20 was a natural fit for this role, and it was selected for this new project under the rainbow code "Red Steer".