‘Terminator of drones’: China unveils stealth-detecting radars
Country’s first portable and ‘multipurpose’ radar can be carried by a single soldier and can detect small and low-flying targets.
24 Apr 2021
Among the “star products” at the Nanjing exhibition, which ends on Saturday, is the country’s first portable and multipurpose radar, which could be carried by a single soldier, according to the state-owned publication, Global Times.
The equipment is being dubbed the “terminator of drones” for its capability to detect small and slow targets that blend themselves under strong noise waves by flying close to the ground.
The so-called “YLC-48 radar” can “effectively detect and track incoming targets from any angle”, according to its developer, the No 14 Research Institute of the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC).
The radar uses digital integrated circuits, and it can be mounted on all kinds of lightweight weapons platforms, can conduct missions under all-weather conditions, and can be rapidly deployed and withdrawn, the report said.
The institute has also reportedly developed an Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS) for the radar, enhancing the country’s defence capabilities “in sensitive regions”.
China has also stepped up its use of unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as its anti-drone radar capabilities.
At the exhibition in Nanjing, another anti-drone radar system making its first public appearance is the S-band 3D TWA, a low-altitude surveillance radar.
According to the Global Times report, the new radar system “can simultaneously detect and track targets including low-flying cruise missiles, warplanes and small drones”.
“It will be deployed in key locations like cities, nuclear plants and military facilities,” the developer was quoted by the report as saying.
Hu Mingchun, director of the No 14 Research Institute that developed the radars said the new systems are necessary “to deal with low-altitude, small and slow targets”.
A separate Global Times report on the exhibition said that the new radar systems developed by China “are considered superior to their foreign counterparts”.
Other radar equipment unveiled at the exhibition are the YLC-8E, which could detect even “the most advanced stealth aircraft”, as well as the KLJ-7A, China’s first airborne radar available for sale to other countries.
