On July 1, 2021, at the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the J-20 with stealth function crossed lightly over Tiananmen Square, and countless military fans and people cheered for it.
In particular, the active phased array radar carried by the J-20 directly affects the hearts of the whole world, indicating that China's radar has entered the world's leading level.
The United States and Russia are the pioneers of radar, and the early warning range is enough to cover most places in the world, so what is the early warning range of China's radar?
Where does the radar come from?
Radar is an important part of modern land, sea and air weapons and equipment, equivalent to the clairvoyance of military equipment, theoretically speaking, it can overlook every corner of the entire world from a fixed location, and even the details can be seen clearly.
An antenna is installed inside the radar to emit electromagnetic waves into any space through an electromagnetic transmitting device.
If there are other substances in this space, the radar electromagnetic waves will sense it, and the relevant data will be transmitted to the computer where the radar is located, and all the information about the matter can be known through calculation.
This principle seems to be troublesome, but in fact, compared with various sophisticated weapons on land, sea and air, its structure is relatively simple.
Therefore, radar also started earlier than other high-precision weapons, and it had already appeared as early as World War II.
At that time, in order to be able to predict the enemy's movements and take precautions, the British installed a device that could emit long waves around the barracks, and as long as the enemy army had any trouble, this device could rely on fluctuations to detect changes.
The British army can analyze the intelligence of the enemy army through long-wave changes.
After the victory of World War II, countries around the world successively conducted research on radar, in addition to the mainstream powers such as the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France, and even the Kuomintang built a radar-related research institute in 1946, and made some progress in the research process.
In the field of radar research, all countries in the world started relatively early, but even if all countries stand on the same starting line, the final update of radar devices is still uneven, and even the United States and the Soviet Union have a cliff-like gap in the development process.
So how has the research process of radar changed in various countries over time?
The United States is in a league of its own
In the 70s of the last century, their self-developed paving claw warning system was born.
Compared with the scattered radars developed by countries around the world, the pave pave is a complete radar system that can observe all corners of the world on its own.
And unlike previous radars, which required demanding operating environments, this radar can be adapted to a variety of situations, including but not limited to a variety of cutting-edge equipment in the Air Force, Navy and Army.
For a time, paving claws became a well-deserved "international top stream", and many countries spent a lot of money to buy from the United States.
From the performance point of view, the system uses a double-sided antenna, which can transmit signals to the surrounding space more comprehensively and stably.
The radar is composed of 2,000 array elements, and it is very sensitive to any electromagnetic wave, and can even complete an all-round scan in just six seconds.
The system is said to be able to last up to 450 hours without any surprises.
On the whole, the performance of this has entered the world's leading echelon at that time, especially the early warning range can reach up to 5550 kilometers, and in non-extreme conditions, the conventional operation range can also reach 4800 kilometers.
More than 50 years have passed since the radar was developed, but it still plays an important role in the U.S. Army, Army and Air Force.
Previously, the United States had sold this radar to a number of countries.
There are now only four of them left in the continental United States, mainly located in important military bases of the Navy and Air Force.
It is worth mentioning that a large part of the reason why the United States developed this radar was because the Soviet Union's intercontinental missiles were too developed at that time, and the United States needed to guard against attacks from Moscow at any time, so this radar mainly undertook strategic defense functions.
The USSR competed on the same stage
At the same time, the Soviet Voronezh DM radar was also born, and compared with the United States, this radar has two main highlights.
First of all, the power is large and the observation is far away.
Up to now, even after decades of development, Voronezh still maintains the highest power in the world, with a maximum capacity of 625 kilowatts.
At the same time, this radar successfully defeated the United States in the early warning range, reaching the world's highest radar early warning achievement with 6,000 kilometers.
It is said that this radar can even monitor space, being able to completely block any aircraft coming from the air.
Secondly, this radar is processed in modules.
The designer sets up different modules in each monitoring direction, and each module represents a different function.
When this radar fails or has an accident and wants to repair it, it is not necessary to use the conventional mode to dismantle it all, just check which module has a problem, take out the faulty module, and deal with it separately.
This was a huge technological breakthrough at the time, which effectively improved the utilization rate of radar.
From the mid-70s, radars in the USSR can be described as growing by leaps and bounds.
However, in the midst of excessive military expansion, the country eventually went into decline, and his radar was inherited by the eldest son.
Russia, while repairing and updating the Soviet Union's radar legacy, has gradually slowed down the pace of research and development of new technologies, and now more and more European countries are catching up.
And Russia, thanks to the great creation of the Soviet Union, is still firmly at the top of the list in this area.
After all, the observation distance of the naked eye is limited, and there is no way to observe the situation thousands of kilometers away, and radar is an extended eye, helping countries to see six ways and hear in all directions.
Since the two major military powers have made extraordinary achievements in this field, what are the proud achievements that China has made in recent years, which has flourished in various fields?
Overtaking in a Chinese corner
In April 1949, when Nanjing was liberated, all the researchers of the Kuomintang Inner Research Institute collectively revolted, and they packed up half of the experimental items and research materials that had been researched and handed them over to the People's Liberation Army in their entirety.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) did not carry out drastic reforms after taking over, but set up 14 institutes of electrical science in situ, allowing scientific researchers to continue to dig on the basis of existing research.
After four years of in-depth research, China's first radar was finally developed in 1953.
The chairman looked at the tall radar in front of him and praised it again and again, and actively encouraged the researchers of the research institute and the military industrial enterprises across the country to contribute to the modernization of the Chinese armed forces.
With Chairman Mao's encouragement, the staff of the institute made persistent efforts and successively developed a series of radars.
In 1964, when China's self-developed atomic bomb was about to be completed, Chairman Mao mentioned in his speech at the meeting that the so-called contradictions depend on each other, the nuclear bomb is China's spear, and the radar and anti-missile system are China's shield.
He hoped that radar research and development could keep up with the pace of nuclear weapons and help New China guard this blue sky and white clouds.
Until the 80s of the last century, the radar research and development of the 14th Institute of the Electric Power Branch had caught up with the world average, which was proved by the Soviet satellite crash in 1983.
At that time, the Soviet Union launched a nuclear exploration satellite, and suddenly an accident occurred when it entered the established observation orbit.
According to the analysis of the Soviet space agency, the satellite is likely to fall in a short time, sending a warning to countries around the world that they are preparing in advance.
After getting this news, the whole world was shocked, because nuclear exploration satellites are different from ordinary satellites, they themselves have high-strength nuclear energy, and if they really fall from space, although the strike force is not as strong as that of an atomic bomb, it can definitely cause a lot of impact.
Countries around the world have activated their own radar systems, but they have been frantically searching in various spaces, and no clues have been found, and in the end, everyone can only hope that the United States can only hope that the American radar will say in advance after discovering the trajectory of the satellite, at least so that everyone can have a psychological preparation.
But at a time when most countries in the country were powerless, China's radar took the lead in data analysis through signal detection, and finally determined the precise coordinates of the satellite's fall.
At that time, China's radar level was already comparable to that of the United States, and China's radar had more development in types.
Today, the Chinese warships 052D and 055 drive use active phased array radar, which can detect the whole world 360 degrees without dead angles, and is even enough to cover the aircraft operating in space.
China's radar has fully realized the trinity of air, ground and sea, and the early warning range can reach more than 4,000 kilometers.
Although there is still a certain gap between China's early warning range and the other two in terms of data, it has reached a fairly high level compared with other countries.
4,000 kilometers is enough to cover most of the world's places and ensure national defense security.
Nowadays, China's radar research and development is still on the way, with so many young researchers and scholars involved, presumably in the near future, China's gap with the rest of the world in the field of radar will be smaller and smaller, and it can achieve the whole process from catching up quickly, to keeping along, and then to completely surpassing.
For this, the Chinese have full confidence in the country's scientific researchers.