Recently, in a program broadcast by the CCTV-7 National Defense Military Channel, it was reported that a certain type of high-power radar deployed by a certain brigade of the air force in the Northern Theater on an island in the Yellow Sea can not only see ordinary planes, helicopters, balloons, etc., but also see targets beyond conventional standards.
Ma Qihang, a radar soldier at the "Red Outpost Radar Station", said to the CCTV camera that his location is located on a small island deep in the Yellow Sea, close to the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and the so-called "beyond conventional targets" he refers to is actually the F-35A joint attack/fighter with stealth performance that Japan and South Korea have been equipped.
According to the South China Morning Post, Chinese scientists are developing a groundbreaking radar that can use signals from China's Beidou navigation satellite system to detect, track and lock on to the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter.
In a scientific paper published this month in the Journal of the National University of Defense Technology, an image of an F-22 Raptor fighter jet was used to illustrate the hypothetical target of the new radar, implying that the new radar could crack the stealth performance of the fighter.
The Raptor is the world's first fifth-generation fighter and the most well-known stealth fighter. The estimated performance data also shows that the new radar technology developed by Chinese scientists can also be used to detect the F-35A/B/C "LIGHTNING II" series of military aircraft built by Lockheed Martin · also have stealth performance.
The research team, led by Wen Yuanyuan, a senior engineer at the Key Laboratory of Space Microwave Technology at the Xi'an Branch of the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said the Beidou radar could make anti-stealth technology more accessible.
When Beidou's signal encounters stealth military aircraft like F-22 and F-35, the signal will be interrupted and dispersed. This scattering creates a unique echo in the radio spectrum, which Chinese scientists claim to have deciphered.
Using advanced algorithms, Chinese scientists were able to determine the location of stealth fighters by analyzing specific radio signal interference. This approach has already been tested in simulations and may be effective against both stealth military aircraft, the F-22 and F-35.
Traditional radar systems work by emitting a beam of light reflected off an object, and larger objects return more detectable signals. Stealth fighters are designed to scatter these beams, reflecting as little signal as possible to evade detection by radar pilots.
With China's new approach based on satellite signal analysis rather than traditional radar beams, even low-radar cross-section fifth-generation stealth fighters like the F-22 and F-35 may become easier to detect, lock onto, and attack.
It is reported that Chinese researchers are also studying other methods to track stealth military aircraft. These include the use of long-wave signals bouncing off the ionosphere, radiation from commercial satellites, and electromagnetic signals generated by military bases in the United States.
China's Jilin-1 commercial satellite, with the help of artificial intelligence, even tracked a stealth fighter flying in the clouds, which was later interpreted by foreign defense observers as the F-22 stealth fighter in service with the United States Air Force.
The six-second video of the Jilin-1 commercial satellite tracking the F-22 stealth fighter jet flying at high speed in the clouds caused a sensation on the social platform X (formerly Twitter), demonstrating "powerful combat capabilities in the future."
It shows that China has a new technology to detect stealth fighters, that is, the use of commercial satellites to track stealth fighters in flight, and that satellites can capture stealth fighters that are difficult to detect even by ground-based radars, and this technological integration may give China a significant advantage in future air combat scenarios.
China's technological advances in anti-stealth detection highlight the broad competition between China and the United States in the field of military technology. While the F-22 and F-35 represent the pinnacle of United States' aviation industry, China's innovation in anti-stealth technology could close the gap between the two countries in stealth military aircraft.
In short, the paper "GNSS-R Blind Detection Method for Weak Target Echoes" published by the Journal of the National University of Defense Technology has clearly shown that China is developing an anti-stealth detection technology based on the Beidou satellite navigation system, which is of great significance for national defense modernization.
The fifth-generation stealth fighter loses the advantage of stealth in front of China, making it almost impossible for stealth fighters to be invisible near Chinese territory, which will greatly improve the capabilities of the Chinese army's anti-stealth fighters.
It not only improves the anti-aircraft defense performance of the Chinese army, but also has a far-reaching impact on the military pattern of the Asia-Pacific region, and the threat of stealth fighters equipped by other countries to China has been greatly reduced, while the military deterrence posture of the J-20 and J-35 stealth fighters equipped by the Chinese army is real.