Chief Designer of KLJ-7 and 7A radar....a brief interview (more than 1000 T/R units)
At the Zhuhai Air Show in 2016, China Electronics Technology Group's 14th Research Institute brought its latest product, the KLJ-7A Airborne Active Phased Array Fire Control Radar. This is the first time in 20 years that Zhuhai Airshow has exhibited such radars and has become the focus of the air show site, attracting the audience, the media and the industry's attention.
The magazine noted in the field that the president and vice president of the Russian tihimilov apparatus institute and the chief designer of the Fazatelon Design Bureau have come to 14 booths and have been very careful to observe and learn more about the KLJ-7A Happening. The two units are Russia's main airborne fire control radar development units, and 14, is the world's few able to develop active phased array fire control radar units, we can see the industry for the KLJ-7A debut huge attention.
In order to further understand the performance of KLJ-7A radar and China's airborne fire control radar in the field of development and export situation, "modern weapons" magazine had the honor to interview the "Fierce Dragon" fighter radar system director designer Xu Jian, through his personal experience We have in-depth explanation.
Airborne radar production line exports KLJ-7A airborne active phased array fire control radar
Zhuhai air show in the final analysis or a business platform, where the exhibition is an important factor to consider the export. According to Xu Jian, China has been in the airborne fire control radar has been exported, and far more than simply "export" so simple, whether it is bidding process, cooperation model and the story behind the impressive.
"Fierce Dragon" fighter (export model: JF-17) is the Air China and Pakistan Air Force jointly developed a light multi-functional fighter, the equipment of the radar contract competition began in 2003, 14 airborne fire control radar in a number of The selection of the test flight showed outstanding performance, with Italy, France and other units in the country stand out. In more than a decade ago, with the traditional foreign countries in the field of competition is undoubtedly embodies the 14 as "China's radar industrial birthplace," the strong strength.
Now more than ten years have passed, then what about the project? According to Xu Jian introduced in the small batch of radar after the successful delivery of foreign companies based on the idea of technological progress, follow-up radar procurement to take cooperative production methods. From 2009 onwards, 14 of the technical guidance team to take root in a country's factories, and gradually carry out the radar in the country's batch production cooperation. In order to help the country build a complete production capacity, 14 to the country to provide a large number of production, commissioning and testing equipment, so as to truly achieve all the radar components in the country's localization production vision.
Any one of the implementation of the project will not be smooth sailing, stringent requirements of users, the local hard construction conditions and the two sides of different cultures and ideas to bring the communication gap, gave the scene to bring a lot of difficulties and challenges. The entire production, process, commissioning and testing equipment for foreign personnel are the first zero distance contact, for which the Chinese experts to the country to provide high-quality training.
Xu also recalled him and the team experienced in Pakistan, a variety of breathtaking scenes: 2008, the Bama Rio Hotel big bang, when the atmosphere is very strong terror, while the Chinese engineering team is the base of the test flight; the 2009 earthquake in Pakistan In 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed, the Taliban armed threatened to retaliate, their base is not far from the country's factory, for safety, the engineering team in the base was closed a full three month. In the case of such a difficult situation, the Chinese engineering team's calm and calm to Pakistani personnel moved, they use practical action to practice the friendship between the two countries, and airborne fire control radar cooperation project is the two countries friendship enrichment and Sublimation of the witness.
What is the advantage of airborne active radar?
The Zhuhai Air Show, KLJ-7A radar in China Electronics Technology Group company theater entrance to the most prominent position, the audience into the exhibition area will be able to see it first. Reporters on the scene to see, China Electric Branch leadership to visit the guests to introduce the product is the first to introduce the KLJ-7A, the audience will be in this type of product before the stop.
Why is KLJ-7A so interesting? Speaking of this, we have to know in the rapidly changing complex combat environment, as the main battlefield to detect the perception of the battlefield situation, airborne fire control radar to complete the search, intercept, track, guide a variety of functions, is the "Air Eagle" fighter sharp Eyes, always ready to find the enemy, to give a fatal blow.
According to the working system and combat effectiveness, the development of active airborne fire control radar has undergone three stages: machine sweep pulse Doppler radar, passive phased array radar and active phased array radar. According to Xu Jian introduced, 14 of the plant such products through the same several stages.
KLJ-7A radar technology level and the United States F-22 stealth fighter APG-77 radar comparable
Nearly 30 years, 14 of the airborne radar has achieved from scratch, to reach or close to the level of foreign technology, with considerable competitiveness, not only occupy the vast majority of the domestic market share, has gradually entered International military market.
In the 1980s, there were only a few developed countries in the world who could develop airborne pulse Doppler radar, and our country was weak, and a lot of key technologies were in the initial stage. The concentration of airborne radar elite team began in 14 Research and development, the key components and modules began to break through the PD (pulse Doppler) key technology, he presided over the completion of the radar engineering design, so that the PD radar system to the Breakthrough, is a major achievement in the field of radar, China has set the field of national defense airborne radar independent research base.
Active Phased Array Fire Control Radar Each antenna unit is connected behind a T / R component, which is closer to the antenna element, eliminating the RF loss caused by the feeder network when the passive phased array radar is received and received. Therefore, the RF power High efficiency, can significantly improve the detection range. At the same time, active phased array radars use highly reliable solid-state devices to replace low-life electrical vacuum devices, improving reliability and greatly increasing maintenance intervals.
Compared with the traditional mechanical scanning radar, the active phased array radar beam is flexible, which increases the system bandwidth, and can realize the same time, space, sea, search, precision tracking, missile guidance, multi-target attack, electronic warfare, imaging Different working modes, to achieve different functions. In addition, active phased array radar also has a high data rate, stealth performance, anti-interference ability and so on.
Today, the airborne active phased array fire control radar has become the current national new fighters and the original fighter upgrade essential products.
Technical level comparable to F-22 fighter radar
According to Xu Jian introduced, the use of advanced solid-state active phased array radar technology, can be equipped with, light fighter, the main combat missions, including seizure of air power, destroy the enemy battlefield targets, destroy enemy forces; assault maritime targets, ; Destruction of the depth of the political economy and military and other important goals.
