Towering outside Nanjing’s exhibition centre the past few days were China’s latest showcases of military technology; anti-stealth radar systems capable of detecting the world’s top “invisible” aircraft, it is said. But the show itself could have done with a little less secrecy.
The 2021 World Radio Detection and Ranging Expo, also being called the World Radar Expo, took place at the Nanjing International Exhibition and Conference Centre from 22-24 April, 2021. And outside, resplendent in their camouflage, were the stars of an otherwise lacklustre show.
The new bits of kit with the supposedly groundbreaking tech spec were specifically those built by CETC (China Electronics Technology Group Corp.), an amalgamation of Chinese research institutes. Something of a Nanjing legend, the city’s No.14 Research Institute employs over ten thousand people locally and is regarded as the cradle of the Chinese radar industry.
Among the high-tech monsters on display was the JY-26 3D Long Range Air Surveillance Radar. Coupled with two more units, the new generation UHF-band radar can accurately triangulate the exact positions of incoming missiles and stealth aircraft.
Opposite, the YLC-18 Highly Mobile Low Attitude 3D Surveillance Radar that can detect low altitude and ultra-low altitude flaying targets, such as cruise missiles.
But China is not the only one in the anti-stealth radar game, and the idea is far from new.
As long ago as 2014, China unveiled its first such system, together with the claim that the new tech would render obsolete aircraft such as the USA’s F-22 stealth fighter, built by Lockheed Martin.
The anti-stealth system being referred to was the DWL002, itself an iteration of a similar Russian-developed radar. The claim at the time had its sceptics, but Vassily Kashin, Senior Research Fellow at the Moscow-based think tank, Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said that the DWL002’s capabilities were not exaggerated and that it posed a serious threat, reported The Diplomat.
Almost 7 years on, the serious machinery on display at the expo these past few days makes almost certain China’s capabilities in the field.
Away from the undoubtedly impressive centrepieces on the concrete, inside the two halls occupied by the expo, things were a little less exciting. While the organisers had their big booths, there was little of note therein; the backs of the halls dotted with domestic, B-list radar producers staffed by largely disinterested exhibitors.
For the World Radar Expo is but in name only, being an all-China affair.
And for all the fanfare and chest beating, during The Nanjinger’s visit to the expo this past Saturday, the world’s supposed, much-feared anti-stealth systems appeared to be a social media opportunity for parents with young children more than a serious threat to US military might.
Furthermore, this publication was unable to locate a single representative of CETC with whom it could speak regarding the anti-stealth radar technology. Perhaps less stealth and more oomph might have been the better order of the day for the 2021 World Radar Expo.
