Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also brings you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!
With the continuous improvement of military strength, foreign media, led by the "Global Firepower Network", have ranked China's military strength third in the world, second only to the United States and Russia.
Therefore, whenever a new type of weaponry appears, people will involuntarily compare China, the United States, and Russia, such as the early warning radar, which is crucial for modern warfare.
In the research and development of early warning radars, the detection range of early warning radars in the United States is as high as 5,500 kilometers, while Russia is 500 kilometers more than the United States.
So compared with the two major military powers, the United States and Russia, what level has China's early warning radar developed, and what is its maximum detection range?
The key to modern air defense: early warning radar
With the advancement of science and technology and informatization in modern warfare, early warning radar is also playing an increasingly important role in modern air defense.
Generally speaking, early warning radars are deployed in a fixed position to achieve long-range target detection by emitting detection waves from the outside world.
At its core, it works by transmitting radio frequency signals and receiving the echoes reflected from the target to determine the target's bearing, distance, altitude and velocity.
In modern warfare, the reconnaissance of the battlefield situation and the acquisition of information play a decisive role in the outcome of the war. Early warning radar can provide timely early warning and help us quickly detect air threats such as fighter jets and missiles from local areas.
At the same time, the capabilities of the early warning radar determine that it will become an important part of the air defense system. By emitting radio frequency signals, the early warning radar can not only detect air threats in a timely manner, but also provide accurate guidance information for air defense missile systems, greatly improving the effectiveness of air defense.
More importantly, the real-time nature of early warning radar detection enables it to provide us with data feedback on the battlefield in the first time.
The environment of the battlefield is undoubtedly complex, and if we cannot find out the first-hand information of the war in a timely manner, it is very likely to affect the accuracy and efficiency of military action decision-making, and the emergence of early warning radar has perfectly solved this problem.
It is not difficult to see that early warning radar, as a part of the national defense system, plays an irreplaceable role in defending the security of the country's airspace. It provides a solid barrier to national security by alerting an enemy threat before it approaches the border.
For this reason, countries around the world have spared no effort to update and iterate early warning radars, and strive to develop new early warning radars with more powerful performance and wider detection range.
Russian "Eye in the Sky": Voronezh-DM radar
As a masterpiece of Russian military technology, the Voronezh-DM radar is undoubtedly one of the top early warning radar systems in the world today.
The Voronezh-DM radar is a powerful land-based missile early warning radar system, which is designed to meet the needs of rapid detection and early warning of long-range missile threats.
Why is the Voronezh-DM radar the pinnacle of radar research and development in Russia?
In terms of performance parameters, the peak power of the Voronezh-DM radar is as high as 625 kilowatts, which makes the Voronezh-DM radar have extremely long-range and accurate detection capabilities.
In terms of technology, the Voronezh-DM radar adopts the latest phased array technology, which allows the radar beam to quickly and accurately scan the vast sky, effectively improving the efficiency and accuracy of detection.
Another distinctive feature of the Voronezh-DM radar system is its two-echelon architecture.
The first echelon consists of observation satellites in space, which are responsible for detecting signs of ballistic missile launches. As soon as an anomaly is detected, the satellite will immediately relay an early warning signal to the ground echelon.
The ground echelon consists of several high-performance radar stations, which, after receiving an early warning signal from a satellite, quickly determine the direction of flight of the missile and the coordinates of a possible attack.
Such a two-echelon structure allows the Voronezh-DM radar to have an extremely wide detection range, reaching a world-leading 6,000 km, and is also capable of simultaneously tracking up to 5,000 targets.
There is no doubt that the Voronezh-DM radar is a concentrated embodiment of Russia's military-technical prowess, which significantly enhances Russia's defense and security capabilities.
American Pave Claw radar
The American Pave Claw radar was born during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. In the 70s of the last century, faced with the potential threat of Soviet intercontinental missiles, the United States urgently needed a system capable of detecting and tracking these missiles at long distances. As a result, the "Pave Claw" radar came into being.
The Pave Claw radar used the most advanced phased array technology at the time, and it had amazing detection capabilities. Its peak power is up to 582 kilowatts, and the detection range can reach 5,550 kilometers, which is enough to cover the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
At the heart of the Pave Claw radar is its phased array antenna technology. This technology allows the radar beam to change direction in an instant, allowing for fast tracking and detection of multiple targets.
In addition, the Pave Claw radar has extremely high resolution and accuracy, is able to distinguish between different types of targets, and is capable of identifying even extremely small ones, which gives it an irreplaceable place in strategic early warning and air defense systems.
With the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Pave Claw radar has gradually withdrawn from the military field.
However, in addition to military applications, the "Pave Claw" radar also has certain applications in the civilian field, such as meteorological observation and civil aviation traffic control.
China's "Elite Eye": Electrical P-band Radar
Due to historical reasons, the mainland started late in the research and development of early warning radars, and was also limited by many technical bottlenecks, which led to the fact that the maximum detection range of the mainland early warning radar now lags behind the United States and Russia, only 4,000 kilometers.
At present, the main force of early warning radars in service on the mainland is mainly the P-band radar of the electrical department. This radar is known as the "elite eye" of air defense for its extraordinary long-range detection capabilities and accurate target recognition capabilities.
CETC's P-band radar uses cutting-edge phased array technology, which allows the radar beam to quickly change direction and shape, so as to achieve fast tracking and precise locking of multiple targets.
It is worth mentioning that it works in the unique P-band, which has strong resistance to atmospheric attenuation, which can ensure the stable transmission and long-distance detection of radar signals.
At the same time, because it can detect some electromagnetic waves that cannot be completely absorbed or reflected by the stealth coating designed for other band radars, P-band radar has more advantages over other radars for the detection of stealth targets.
In addition to being widely used in the military field, in the civilian aspect, the P-band radar of the electrical department also performs well, whether it is in maritime search and rescue, land monitoring, or weather forecasting and weather monitoring, it plays an indispensable role.
Although there is still a certain distance between the mainland and the United States and Russia in terms of maximum detection range, the comprehensive performance of China's radar is very powerful.
Taking the P-band radar of the electronic branch as an example, its unique advantages over stealth targets make it impossible for even the most advanced stealth fighters to hide in front of them.
This also means that with the further development of early warning radar in the future, China's air defense system will be more perfect, so that the enemy will not dare to attack easily!
Resources
[1] "Technocracy|Russia continues to deploy the "Voronezh" radar, and the strategic "shield" is becoming stronger and stronger" - The Paper
[2] "CETC's P-band long-range early warning phased array radar is at the international leading level" - State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council