The most sophisticated radar has been developed by Chinese researchers. Dragonfly eye is the name given to the new radar. The new radar will keep an eye on Taiwan, which is the birthplace of deadly typhoons and from which a ballistic missile may be fired into mainland China.
According to a story in China Daily on August 15, the PLA announced the deployment of the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter jet to the Chinese Air Defense (AD) Identification Zone in order to “monitor” foreign military aircraft. The identity of the pilot, Yang Chunlei, was even revealed in the magazine.
The report in China’s official publication caught the attention of analysts at the US military agency Janes. US analysts highlighted that Beijing has now revealed that Chengdu J-20 fighters fly flights inside air defense zones to keep an eye on other nations’ military aircraft.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter planes flown by the US, Japan, and South Korea may be found by the Chinese aircraft. The ability to find and identify stealth aircraft is special. The Chengdu J-20 could carry out such a task, but the Americans were unaware of its capabilities.
The Chengdu J-20’s inbuilt radar with an active phased array antenna allows it to “see” stealth aircraft (APAR). The radiation characteristics of this cutting-edge radar, including direction, frequency, and phases, may be changed extremely fast.
The antenna array of the radar is made up of several tiny autonomously operated modules. The independent control of each antenna unit enables the synthesis of various phase beams. Based on the interference principle, the electromagnetic waves that each phased array antenna element emits are combined into “detection beams.”
Such a radar looks like the eyes of a bee or a dragonfly from the outside. The radar may catch many objects at once due to the variable rate of scanning parameters. Additionally, the detection range of the APAR-equipped radar is about 30% larger than that of a traditional mechanical scanning radar.
It should be noted that China Electronics Technology Group Corporation created and produced the radar for the Chengdu J-20 aircraft fully in China (CETC).