Chinese Radar Developments - KLJ series and others

antiterror13 said:

Perhaps you are the one who need to research better. The UK is definitely not a world leader .... far from it

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I am genuinely interested in seeing some evidence but I feel they will be very disappointing and nothing too impressive and concrete. UK's defense research for future technologies has a name. It's called the USA. They don't do it anymore because it's done far cheaper, quicker, and more effectively across the pond. UK is more a giant bank these days rather than the engineering powerhouse they once was, although a lot of talent and infrastructure remains, the drive has been displaced. I googled UK quantum photonics radar and the results came back all dodgy news article sites about China's.

UK's best home made radars are second rate compared to the US' why would they come out with photonics radars and novel means of detection before the US is beyond me. World leader is singular. Their only fighter AESA hasn't even been ordered by their own airforce or anyone else yet. It apparently still needs foreign funding in the form of an export order to finish development and testing before RAF will consider it properly. This gives a decent enough indication of how difficult high end complex projects truly are and UK's management of them - underfunded and prolonged development. No reason to expect radar/detection (less important overall considering likely threats and engagement) to be any different. By the time they finish the Tempest if they ever do, F-35s will have MLU and sixth gens will be tested or introduced in US and maybe even China. UK is not only NOT a world leader in these fields, they're truly not even second rate, behind France and Russia. Don't bother comparing with China and US. I can't understand how people still think China's radar and detection tech is "behind", it has been right behind the US for nearly 10 years now. It's probably equal level by now. We'll find more clues in year's time and then this will be confirmed in many decades time and it will become more common knowledge just how sophisticated Chinese radars and detection research was in 2018.

Right !
The quantum radar with single photon detection, reach 130 km. At least four Chinese institutions, including the 14th CETC, have contributed to its development.

From Dafencao blog I know the picture has been posted at Zhuhai air show thread
LKF601E air cooling airborne AESA radar.







The world's first! China's air-cooled active phased array radar debut at the air show
China Aviation News reported in May last year that the world's first airborne air-cooled two-dimensional active phased array fire control radar was successfully developed in the aviation industry radar. According to reports, this type of radar uses high-efficiency air-cooling technology to successfully solve the worldwide problem that the traditional PD radar fighter can not directly upgrade the active phased array radar in situ. The existing environmental control, power supply and structure of the aircraft Direct in-place retrofitting without any change can greatly reduce the cost of retrofitting, shorten the time of retrofitting

The successful development of this type of radar is of great significance for improving China's national defense strength and improving the international competitiveness of airborne radar in the aviation industry. It has broad application prospects at home and abroad and is expected to produce good economic benefits.

In the 1970s, the fighter jets used in various countries were mainly air-cooled radars. However, with the increase of radar power and performance after the 1990s, the efficiency of air-cooling and heat dissipation could not meet the demand. The world's mainstream fighters have begun to use liquid-cooled technology to dissipate heat from airborne radars. However, liquid-cooled systems are more expensive and complicated than air-cooled systems. Although they have greatly improved heat dissipation efficiency, they also bring cost increases and maintenance difficulties. problem.

The advantage of the air-cooled LKF601E active phased array radar is that it is much smaller in size than the same type of radar with the same performance. It can be mounted on the head of the "Jilong" fighter, which further enhances the performance of this type of aircraft.

Hendrik_2000 said:

The new CETC 14th AESA Antenna Shooting Radar, capable of "looking backwards". It should actually have several planar faces pointing to different directions of the aircraft.
From Henri K blog

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Are you not sure if it has several faces? I think the rectangular silver colored plate on the lower side is the side face, just the cover is strangely different from the yellow cover on the main face.

taxiya said:

Are you not sure if it has several faces? I think the rectangular silver colored plate on the lower side is the side face, just the cover is strangely different from the yellow cover on the main face.

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Newer cutaways show that the radar indeed has side-facing arrays. On another note, Henri K. is claiming that this is a version of the KLJ-7A radar first seen in the 2016 airshow.

Via LKJ86
I guess they already installed and tested on JF17

Via Clark Gap spec of the new radar. Any comments?

Nice. Looks like this was custom built for JF-17. The smaller size and power output probably means less cooling required so they removed the costly liquid cooling systems and replaced it with a more cost effective air cooling method. This radar is probably already leaps and bounds better than the Captor. Because the former actually exists and can soon be fielded.

If PAF installs this on blk-3s, it proves they are satisfied with the performance and previous decision to reject some Chinese equipment only shows they are quite selective about procurements and will not buy something that doesn't work well. An AESA on the world's most inexpensive 4th gen fighter just proves how competent Chinese radar building industry has become at delivering a certain standard of capability and quality at a competitive price. There's otherwise no point in putting $10M radar sets onto a $30M fighter before 2030 when AESA will become more common on 4th gen fighters outside of USAF fleets.

With AESA and new upgrades for blk3 JF-17, it will blow the competition. Even Gripen NG will be behind and at about three times the price (although it is Meteor capable so that's a huge advantage for it). Tejas MK2 will unlikely be anywhere near as competitive IF they get it to the level they are promising. If JF-17 BLK-3 ends up with AESA, IAF will probably buy an Italian or Israeli AESA for $! which will set everything else back a bit. Their domestic fighter AESA does exist but it's their first attempt. Add WS-19 onto JF-17 one day... but that might be pointlessly complicating a budget fighter built for attrition. Would be like putting a Ferrari V12 into a Fiat if it gets bloated up with new expensive kits.

Comparing these specs with ones on the old KLJ7 promo poster.
Fighter detection range 170>105 km
Tracked targets 15>10
Multiple targets attacked 4>2
Weight 145<120 kg
Volume wise they seem similar, with the new radar having a thicker array panel.

SAR resolution, to put it in context. Here for new radar it's claimed 1 m. Su-35's radar has 3 m resolution. Su-57 has 0.5 meter resolution. Those two are as per NIIP data. F15E had 2-3 meter resolution back in late 1980s. But resolution is a function of distance as well. Only for F-15's radar did I find the distance for said resolution, it was 20 nm. Manufacturer of SABR radar, marketed as AESA replacement radar for F-16 was claiming resolution of 0.3 meters.

Radar resolution is quite important I'd say, as it allows for self-identification and self-target confirmation at stand off ranges. Knowing you're looking at plane X rather than plane Y, or at tank rather than an AAA vehicle from tens of kilometers away, rather than from, say, 10 km away, is a huge deal.