We have repeatedly said that the F-22 is difficult to pose a threat to China at present, mainly because China has a relatively complete anti-stealth radar network, as well as an air combat system composed of J-20 and Air Police-500 with more advanced performance. Coupled with the geographical limitations faced by the F-22 in Northeast Asia, its combat radius is too short, and the tactical organization of seizing air supremacy at China's doorstep is very complicated. But from the perspective of the Americans, compared with the F-35, the F-22 is still a high-end combat platform with better stealth performance and flight performance, and it bears an irreplaceable mission in this era of countering the rise of the PLA's air power. In addition, the US military is also developing the B-21 stealth medium-range strategic bomber, and also wants to use its broadband stealth capability to form a strategic deterrent against China.
Against this backdrop, the South China Morning Post revealed another major achievement in the field of radar by China: the use of new detection methods to increase the radar reflection area of the F-22 by a factor of 60,000. If the omnidirectional average radar reflection area of the F-22 is 0.006 square meters, after adopting this radar detection mechanism, the reflection area of the F-22 on the Chinese radar is 6 square meters, which is comparable to that of an ordinary fighter. This also means that once the necessary improvements are made to China's radar network, all U.S. stealth fighters will lose their stealth cloaks, and this impact will be strategic.
Then there's the crucial question: How did the Chinese team increase the radar reflection area of the F-22 by a factor of 60,000? In other words, this is a not new radar detection principle, which detects hidden targets through the linkage of multiple radars deployed in multiple places. After China's major radars have become active phased array systems, we can build a centralized network radar system linked by high-speed data links, and then use an "intelligent resource scheduling" method to adjust the beam parameters and the power of each radar according to the characteristics of stealth aircraft in the theater and real-time position changes. In this way, we can use the limited resources of each radar to align the direction of the fighter's radar reflection angle, significantly improving the strength and tracking accuracy of its radar signal, while ensuring that it continues to lock onto the target.
According to the newspaper, a comprehensive and stable tracking of the F-22 fighter formations can be achieved with only three radars. Such a detection network can cover 63,000 square kilometers, ensuring that the F-22 cannot escape the fate of being tracked when it enters China's periphery. One thing worth noting is that these radars can be deployed flexibly on land, on islands, on ships and AWACS. As China begins to deploy unmanned AWACS aircraft, coupled with more and more data on shipborne radars, it is very easy and realistic to build such an anti-stealth radar network.
The positioning of the F-22 by the system can be completed in 0.008 seconds, and the tracking accuracy is about 20 meters. From a tactical point of view, once the F-22 is locked, the Chinese Air Force's fighter jets can launch air-to-air missiles using a two-way data link to carry out long-range hunting of the F-22 hundreds of kilometers away. In the future, long-range air-to-air missiles guided by infrared terminals are also a development trend, and this infrared air-to-air missile using datalink relay guidance is very suitable for hunting stealth fighters. The positioning accuracy of 20 meters means that US stealth aircraft, including the F-22, are running naked in the direction of the western Pacific Ocean approaching China. Even if the F-22 deploys a large fleet, the system can get detailed information about each aircraft in 0.02 seconds, which means that our use of radar resources is very high. It stands to reason that the use of multiple radars to detect stealth fighters in cooperation should not be a new technology, and why has it still achieved practical results? This should be the main innovation of the Chinese team, and the "intelligent resource debugging" method they developed is a black technology, which can continuously adjust the beam parameters and the power of each radar according to the characteristics and real-time position of the stealth fighter.