AWACS is hailed as
China's "two bombs and one satellite" project in the new era
On many of these key nodes
All have his original and even forceful layout
Wang Xiaomo said that he has done one thing in his life: developing radar.
In 1992, Wang Xiaomo was transferred from the director of the 38th Research Institute of the Ministry of Electronics Industry to the director of the Military Industry Bureau of China Electronics Industry Corporation. It was like a dividing line that divided his career in two: the first half developed the radar, and the second half "moved" it to AWACS.
The AWACS aircraft is a landmark equipment that reflects a country's comprehensive strength and scientific and technological level, and is known as China's "two bombs and one satellite" project in the new era. As the leader of the project, Wang Xiaomo is a recognized "strategic scientist", and it is his ingenious and even controversial layout at some key nodes that has enabled China's early warning aircraft to achieve leapfrog development.
Wang Xiaomo's proud protégé and chief designer of China's first early warning aircraft "Air Police 2000" Army, once said that China has four generations of early warning aircraft personnel, and Academician Wang Xiaomo is the first generation and their "spiritual leader", he is indeed a strategist. The Army itself can be said to be one of the proofs of this strategic vision. In the 80s of last century, 38 institutes had just moved out of the third line of Guizhou, and the relocation funds were extremely scarce, but Wang Xiaomo spent a huge amount of 400,000 yuan to "buy" 7 master's degrees from the University of Science and Technology of China, and the army was one of them.
Liu Fanjun, one of the authors of "The Biography of Wang Xiaomo", feels that Wang Xiaomo's way of thinking is very special, making people a little elusive, he does not take the usual path, and is good at finding his own way out in the road that others have not taken, making it turn around.
On March 6, 2023, 84-year-old "father of early warning aircraft" Wang Xiaomo died in Beijing.
Academician Wang Xiaomo. Photo/Zhongxin
The fate of two radars changed
Liu Fanjun told China Newsweek that the "383 radar" changed Wang Xiaomo's fate.
In 1972, Wang Xiaomo was appointed by 38 as the chief designer of the 383 radar. The 383 radar is a new type of three-coordinate radar, and before that, the radars equipped by China were basically two-coordinate, which could only measure azimuth and distance, not altitude.
However, when Wang Xiaomo took someone to develop the radar, the outside was already changed.
After the reform and opening up, Sino-foreign exchanges and cooperation have been close. Many people have doubts about the 383 radar developed in the ravines of the third line in Guizhou, and advocate the direct purchase of the American AN/TPS-43 radar. And the 383 radar does face many problems such as insufficient power. With the support of the Air Force's radar department, superiors agreed to give them another chance.
At the end of 1979, the improved 383 radar was shipped to Wuhan for testing. Whether the radar detection range can reach 200 kilometers will determine its fate.
The test did not go well. The detection range is more than 250 km in good times and less than 200 km in bad times. They were constantly debugging, taking every part apart and checking it over and over again, and over and over again for three months, but sometimes the plane was just not visible on the radar screen.
Wang Xiaomo felt that he was about to "run out of skills". More than 1,000 people in 38 institutes have been working in the mountains of Guizhou for seven years to develop this product, and if it fails, 38 may be finished. When he was most desperate, Wang Xiaomo even thought about jumping into the Yangtze River.
By chance, the problem was finally found. It turns out that the receiver and transmitter of the radar are at the same frequency, and the frequency of the tube used by the transmitter will change with the change of the boot temperature, and the receiver is normal when tested separately, but when working with the transmitter, there will be intermittent slight interference between the 12 receivers, resulting in the performance of the radar fluctuating.
After solving this problem, the fate of the 383 radar turned around, and in 1984 it was finalized by the state design and equipped the troops. In 1985, the "383 three-coordinate guidance radar" won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and Wang Xiaomo ranked first among the awardees.
Since then, Wang Xiaomo has developed another iconic radar: the JY-9.
In 1985, 38 relocated institutes to Hefei were approved. At the end of the year, 47-year-old Wang Xiaomo was appointed director. The total investment in relocation and construction is 28 million, and 38 need to raise 7 million yuan by themselves, and the actual investment far exceeds this figure, which is a huge pressure for 38 institutions with an annual income of less than 12 million. In front of Wang Xiaomo, there is only the way out of developing export equipment to earn foreign exchange.
In November 1987, 38 institutes accompanied the China Electronics Import and Export Corporation to Egypt to participate in the Cairo International Defense Exhibition, bringing three radars, JY-8, JY-9 and JY-10, two of which are mature products, but JY-9 is a "paper radar" with only sketches. But Egypt has become strongly interested in this paper radar.
In May of that year, the West German young Rust piloted a light aircraft straight in, broke through the powerful Soviet radar air defense network, and successfully landed on Moscow's Red Square, shocking the world. In addition to various coincidences, one of the most important reasons is that Rust uses ultra-low altitude flight. Since then, there has been a rapid international upsurge in the development and procurement of low-altitude radars. The JY-9, which interested Egypt, is a radar that takes into account both medium and low altitudes.
Soon, Egypt sent a letter to the Chinese side that it would send a delegation to visit JY-9 in three months. This news made the 38 institutes fry: the expedition is coming, but where is the radar?
Wang Xiaomo quickly set up a research and development team and personally changed the work plan to be accurate to the sky. In order to speed up the progress, he paid a sum of money in advance to the front-line personnel of the cooperative manufacturer. When the delegation came, they were first arranged to visit Beijing for two days, and then cordially invited to visit Guilin for three days of sightseeing. In this way, on the night before the expedition arrived at the 38th institute, echoes finally appeared on the radar that had been hastily set up.
Since then, the JY-9 has experienced many dramatic twists and turns. When Egypt underwent a 660-hour reliability assessment, all the Chinese staff even went into battle to carry buckets in the desert to cool down the oil turbine that stopped the fan. In 1992, the improved JY-9A finally passed the acceptance, and also participated in the joint military exercise between Egypt and the United States in Egypt, ranking second in the comprehensive score of more than 20 radars in the United States, Britain and France, and the anti-jamming ability was particularly eye-catching, becoming an internationally renowned low-altitude radar.
After that, 38 institutions finally got the bulk order contract from Egypt, and also received orders from Zimbabwe and Thailand, and successfully exported 13 JY-9A radars, earning more than 29 million US dollars. From the beginning of the 90s, the JY-9 series was equipped with the Chinese army.
In 1995, the JY-9 radar also won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and Wang Xiaomo ranked first among the awardees. That year, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
"Torus Project"
In February 1992, just as the JY-9A finally passed the test in Egypt, 54-year-old Wang Xiaomo said goodbye to 38 institutions and was appointed director of the Military Industry Bureau of the China Electronics Industry Corporation.
His new post came at a crucial time for domestic reflection on the Gulf War and the development of military electronics.
On January 17, 1991, Operation Desert Storm began, and Iraq, a regional military power claiming to be the "fourth in the world," suffered a crushing defeat in just 42 days. This war has brought about subversive changes in the operational thinking, combat style, and command mode of modern warfare.
In June of that year, the Central Military Commission held three consecutive forums on the Gulf War, and Jiang Zemin attended the whole process. He pointed out: In terms of electronic technology, the gap between us and the advanced countries is not getting smaller and smaller, but is getting bigger and bigger, and we must adopt a realistic attitude to develop national defense science and technology.
In the Gulf War, the AWACS E-3A and E-2C of the multinational force played a key role. Four or five AWACS aircraft are on duty 24 hours a day in the air, directing an average of 2,240 sorties per day. Of the 39 aircraft shot down in Iraq, 37 were shot down by AWACS command. As soon as the Gulf War ended, many countries were seeking to equip early warning aircraft, and China's neighboring countries and regions were also moving quickly. Because in modern warfare, if there is no AWACS aircraft, it is tantamount to giving up air supremacy.
In July 1992, the Military Industry Bureau of CLP held an expert seminar on early warning aircraft missions. At the meeting, the two views were at odds. The Air Force is eager to solve the front-line needs and hopes to purchase equipment directly from abroad; The industrial sector represented by Wang Xiaomo advocates independent research and development.
The Chinese side contacted the British side and inspected the early warning aircraft equipment of Israel and Russia on the spot. After that, the central government decided to walk on two legs: the army could import British shelf products to meet urgent needs, and the industrial sector could import Israeli equipment to solve the problem of development.
The Israeli-developed FHALCON (Chinese known as "Faircon") is the world's first AWACS aircraft to use an active phased array radar, and only debuted at the Paris Air Show in 1993, surpassing the comprehensive performance of the E-3A AWACS aircraft that entered service in the United States in the late 70s. The U.S. E-3A is a passive phased array, while Israel's Faircom uses an active phased array.
Cao Chen, a doctoral student of Wang Xiaomo and deputy chief designer of the export AWACS ZDK03, described in his book "AWACS: The Air Marshal of Informationized Warfare" that the active phased array is like the compound eye of a dragonfly, which has multiple T/R components (that is, transceiver/transceiver components), each component is both a small transmitter and a small receiver, in fact, a small radar. Its total power is synthesized by each T/R component, so it has more power and can be used for anti-stealth. And due to the large number of T/R components, if a small number of "non-combat attrition", the function of the radar is not a big deal, and passive phased array radar and non-phased array traditional radar have only one transmitter, if broken, it is immediately "game over". Another secret of compound eyes is that it can see far and near separately, and T/R components can also be grouped to achieve similar functions.
In March 1993, China and Israel met in Beijing to jointly study the design plan of the AWACS aircraft. Filcom has a leading performance, but the tailor-made introduction plan for the Chinese side can only be regarded as "decent", it can only perform 260-degree scanning, and there is a large blind zone.
On this basis, Wang Xiaomo proposed a unique technical solution that has been considered for a long time, namely the D3 solution. This scheme uses Russia's Il-76 as the carrier aircraft, using the world's largest piggyback antenna, and reducing the blocking of the antenna beam by the tail of the aircraft by raising the radar antenna, which can achieve 360-degree all-round coverage.
In July, Wang Xiaomo was transferred to the Ministry of Electronics Industry as the director of the Pre-research Bureau and the executive vice president of the Institute of Electronic Science, fully devoted to the development of early warning aircraft. He said that he came from a general design background, and now the platform for this overall design is bigger, "after all, I am an engineer."
At this time, China and Israel have reached a consensus on the D3 plan, but the price has been delayed. It was not until 1996, after the seventh quotation of the Israeli side, that the two sides finally reached an agreement. In April of that year, Wang Xiaomo signed a contract with Israel on behalf of the Chinese side, called the Circle Project, also known as the "No. 16 Project". Wang Xiaomo served as the chief designer of the ring project and the director of the circular project office.
"Anti-design"
Liu Fanjun said that "anti-design" is the most wonderful stroke written by Wang Xiaomo in the ring project.
Wang Xiaomo believes that sooner or later China will have to build its own AWACS aircraft, the first one can be bought, but it will be dangerous to buy the second one, so it is necessary to follow suit from the first one, and it is necessary to engage in synchronous development. He advocated that China should not only contribute money but also strength, and share as much as possible. However, at that time, most of the funds for the development of AWACS aircraft were given to Israel, and there were only very few supporting research funds in China. Some people disagree with his claim, believing that China has suffered a loss.
But the leadership of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense is very supportive of his work. Chen Danhuai, then deputy director of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and deputy director of the General Armament Department, once said that there was a basic idea at that time, that is, to believe that since Wang Xiaomo was selected as the chief designer, it would definitely cooperate with his work, but "there is another rule, that is, do not interfere in his work." Wang Xiaomo once recalled that how to do it, he really counted when he said it.
At Wang Xiaomo's insistence, China sent a foreign delegation composed of on-site management teams and on-the-job training personnel. He also offered to help Israel process radomes and T/R component shells. His thought was, if you want me to do it, you have to give me the size, otherwise why would people give it to you?
When the production of T/R module shells began, the Chinese product was returned by the Israeli side on the grounds of "unqualified chamfering arc", and then returned again. Because at that time, the domestic side corners were manually milled by workers with milling cutters, and the curvatures and tolerances were never marked, and the products made were quite different. A box has to be made three times, and some people are very angry, thinking that this is Israel's nitpicking, but Wang Xiaomo demanded that it must be changed until the Israeli side fully recognizes and accepts. Sure enough, after redoing it as required, the energization parameters were qualified, and everyone was convinced.
They made a total of 500 sets of T/R module shells. Hand-milled chamfers of various sizes are gone, replaced by perfectly standardized chamfers. Wang Xiaomo lamented that everyone's respect for norms is "scolded" by Israelis every day.
Wang Xiaomo has built a complete design team in China, and all research institutes are actively cooperating, and they are willing to do it if they give a small amount of material fees. The State Development Planning Commission also strongly supported and helped them build Asia's largest darkroom, the largest autoclave, a dust-free production workshop and a T/R production line. Wang Xiaomo said that this is equivalent to having a "spare tire" plan developed by an early warning aircraft.
In 1998, Wang Xiaomo learned that two Russian "self-employed" wanted to sell an Il-76 aircraft for only 800,000 yuan. He made a decision within a day without consulting anyone. After coordination among various parties, the aircraft arrived at the scientific research base in April 2000. Since then, AWACS aircraft has simultaneously developed its own aircraft carrying platform.
In July 2000, under pressure from the United States, Israel offered the Chinese Government to terminate the contract for the ring project. In March 2002, Wang Xiaomo, as the chief architect of the Chinese side, set foot on Israeli soil for the last time to negotiate the termination of the contract. Israel made economic compensation to China.
The ring project has come to an end. Although this "circle" is not complete, Wang Xiaomo believes that the contract is a success as a whole. The team, technology, and support conditions have been basically formed, and 80% of the workload of the synchronously developed prototype has been completed.
After the termination of the contract, major disagreements arose. Some are inclined to work with Russia to develop AWACS aircraft, but Wang Xiaomo believes that this technology cannot meet China's needs. On behalf of the Ministry of Electronics Industry, he reported to the General Armament Department eight times and to the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Once when it came to sadness, he cried. In the end, after visiting their development bases in the field, the higher authorities decided to support the independent development of AWACS aircraft.
In December 2000, the "Air Police 2000" domestically produced early warning aircraft was officially approved as a project, which became a key project promoted by the whole country.
Wang Xiaomo is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate to serve as the chief designer of "Air Police 2000", but he feels that it should be a young person who has worked as the chief designer of a certain model and understands business; Second, they must have held the position of deputy director or above of the institute and understand management; Third, you must not be more than 40 years old. At his suggestion, the 36-year-old Army, then deputy director of the 38 institutes, was appointed chief designer of the Air Police 2000 (Air Police 2000 had dual chief designers, and a chief division from the aviation department).
Only one year after the cancellation of the ring project contract, the prototype of "Air Police 2000" was successfully trial-produced.
In Wang Xiaomo's plan, the development of early warning aircraft is divided into three lines, one is a large early warning aircraft such as the Air Police 2000, one is a small early warning aircraft such as the Air Police 200, and the other is an export-type early warning aircraft. After the Air Police 2000 and Air Police 200 projects were established, all the research and development forces were invested in them, and Wang Xiaomo, who had taken a back seat, became the chief designer and formed a team of "old men and dolls" who had just graduated graduate students and retired researchers, called "021 Project". In 2005, the AWACS ZDK03 was successfully developed, and then exported to Pakistan, becoming the main model of Pakistan's AWACS aircraft.
On October 1, 2009, at the military parade marking the 60th anniversary of the National Day, the Air Police 2000 and Air Police 200 AWACS aircraft flew over Tiananmen Square as pilot fighters, which was the first public appearance of China's AWACS aircraft.
"The Devil"
In January 2013, Wang Xiaomo won the 2012 National Supreme Science and Technology Award. At that time, the state was preparing to publicize a number of key projects, and AWACS aircraft were the top priority. Yao Yuan, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Military Industry Culture", and Liu Fanjun, a writer from Chongqing, took over the work.
The interview with Wang Xiaomo began after May Day in 2013. Wang Xiaomo invited them to drive to a radar base in Beijing to experience the 383 three-coordinate radar on the spot.
When they arrived at the radar base, the welcome ceremony was simple and solemn, and rows of radar soldiers lined up neatly waiting for Wang Xiaomo's review. The head of the unit learned that he was coming to the base, and overnight dragged the decommissioned 383 radar out of the warehouse and assembled it for operation.
Wang Xiaomo insisted on climbing into the radar car despite dissuasion, and introduced the various capabilities of the radar to Yao Yuan and Liu Fanjun: "This is the front, this is the dashboard, this is the terminal system..." Looking at the way he stroked the radar, Liu Fanjun felt that if he did not see it with his own eyes, it was difficult to imagine his feelings for the radar.
In Liu Fanjun's eyes, Wang Xiaomo is a scientist and engineer with a lot of aura, but when he leaves the office, he is an ordinary old man who loves to laugh.
Wang Xiaomo, who was 76 years old at the time, went back and forth between his work and home every day, and he still maintained a regular schedule, reading books, writing things, checking information on the Internet or shopping online before going to bed.
His students and colleagues felt that he was a doer, and he couldn't stop doing anything he wanted, even if there was a hole in the ground.
In his early years in Guizhou, he earned the nickname "The Devil". "Devil" and "Mo" are homonymous, and "ghost" is because he has a lot of "ghost ideas". He can build his own "dry base" house, raise chickens and farm, make his own honeycomb coal, build his own energy-saving stove, and even assemble his own television. His level of cooking is also famous in 38 schools.
He likes to read historical books such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". When 38 schools were moved from the mountains of Guizhou to Hefei, local farmers were blocked by the impact on their livelihoods, and Wang Xiaomo sang a "empty city plan" and took advantage of the Spring Festival to relocate.
He also illegally installed heating and turned on 24-hour hot water in the staff dormitory at the new site in Hefei. When he was in Guizhou, everyone was so cold in winter that they just wanted to stay in the bed, and he believed that installing heating would improve work efficiency. He wrote multiple reviews and put them in a drawer, and whoever came to ask about the guilt would give a copy. At that time, 38 were legendary "heated units", which also became a competitive advantage for them when recruiting.
Wang Xiaomo was interested in talking about the past of going abroad. In order to promote radar products and learn advanced foreign experience, he has traveled abroad more than 50 times. The country he went to the most was Israel, going 13 times. In his opinion, this is a smart nation with great characteristics in project management, which has allowed the Chinese side to learn a lot.
He felt that Russia's overall design thinking was worth learning from China. Advanced performance and indicators are not exactly stacked with the best components, the overall designer's skill is to design a better system with the same components.
Wang Xiaomo often initiates designer system work meetings, and many of the designers attending the conference are young people who have just graduated. He dared to entrust important programme design or technical organization work to young people with less experience. In almost every major project review, he has young people to give the lecture.
He has a "five-year rule" for training young people. He believes that young people must be used freely, not afraid to put pressure on them, and let them take on some important tasks within five years of joining the work, so that they are forced to show their true skills, or retreat in the face of difficulties, and make new career plans in time. If a young man does not let him practice within five years, it is equivalent to allowing him to abandon his martial arts.
A group of young people has been able to grow rapidly. His doctoral student Cao Chen was not yet 30 years old when he was appointed executive deputy chief designer of the export AWACS aircraft.
Wang Xiaomo has always thought that he is not a scientist, just an engineer. He learned two lessons for his career: one is to have the level of persuasion to do things your way, and the other is to be humble and not to strive for merit.
Liu Fanjun felt that Wang Xiaomo's optimism and open-mindedness were very infectious. In 2006, at a critical moment in the development of the export AWACS aircraft, he suffered a car accident and was diagnosed with lymphoma after recovery, but he was very calm from beginning to end, pulling Jinghu in the ward, discussing work with colleagues, and recovered after half a year.
He once had a wish to stop working after the age of 70 and find a group of old ticket friends to organize a Peking Opera club. Later, it seemed that he could only wait after the age of 80.
In November 2013, Yao Yuan and Liu Fanjun co-authored the reportage "Chasing Dreams". Soon, the Chinese Academy of Engineering prepared to organize the writing of the biography of Academician Wang Xiaomo, and upon the recommendation of Wu Xiaodong, director of the Scientific Ethics Division of the Academy of Engineering, the two took over the task, and in 2015, "The Biography of Wang Xiaomo" was published by the Aviation Industry Press. After that, they collaborated to complete the script of the TV series "Remote Pointing to the Sky" and completed the "AWACS Trilogy".
Wang Xiaomo once said that he hopes to sit on the sofa at home one day and watch the broadcast of the TV series "Remote Pointing to the Sky", so that more people can understand the story behind the development of the AWACS aircraft. But the project was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and he was not able to see the TV series broadcast after all.
He said that he has no regrets in this life, he does what he wants to do, goes where he wants to go, and has received enough honors, he should be content.
(This article refers to "Chasing Dreams of the Sky - Academician Wang Xiaomo's Road to Serving the Country with Science and Technology" written by the China Academy of Electronics Science and Technology and "The Biography of Wang Xiaomo" written by Yao Yuan and Liu Fanjun)
Published in the 1086th issue of China Newsweek magazine on April 3, 2023
Magazine title: "The father of early warning aircraft" Wang Xiaomo
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