China Develops Powerful Maritime Radar

China Develops Powerful Maritime Radar

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China has a new maritime Radar that could survey an area in the size of India. The domestically-developed radar system will enable the Chinese navy to fully monitor China’s seas and spot incoming threats from enemy ships, aircraft and missiles much earlier than the existing technology.
Liu Yongtan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) from the Harbin Institute of Technology, is credited to have upgraded the China’s radar technology and developing an advanced compact size radar for the PLA Navy’s carrier fleet to “maintain constant surveillance over an area the size of India,” the Post reported, according to economictimes.com.
The ship-based OTH radar had greatly increased the range of area that the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) could monitor. “Relying on traditional technologies, our surveillance and monitoring could only cover about 20 percent of our maritime territory. With the new system, we can cover the whole area,” he said.
A senior member of Liu’s team told that the new system would be a ship-based OTH radar system.
The floating radar “will increase our navy’s information gathering capabilities in critical areas” including the South China Sea, Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean.
China is not the only nation developing the technology. A major US defence contractor, Raytheon, was granted a patent in 2016 for a similar system.
The Raytheon design involves a transmitting vessel and several receiving ships with antennae mounted on the deck.
Radio waves are directed into the sky by the transmitter to be collected by the receiving ships, which then pass on the signals to aircraft carriers via satellite or airborne relays.
Chinese military, which now has over USD 175 billion annual defence budget, is focussing on developing heavy military equipment to compete with US for global strategic influence.
China is investing heavily especially in development of the navy to extend its influence beyond to shores. China has also developed two aircraft carrier and is working on the third one.