Type 348 Radar
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The Type 348 radar is a new APAR-style active phased array radar, used on the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy's latest Lanzhou-class Destroyer (052C). The radar is used in conjunction with the HQ-9 SAM to provide long-range air defense capability, a first for the Chinese Navy. Amateur military commentators like to refer the Type 348 as "Chinese AEGIS", but it's a faulty analogy. The AEGIS combat system is an integrated combat management system that includes many components, while the Type 348 only bear some external resemblance to the American AN/SPY-1's phased array radar panels. Although the Chinese official information released indicates that the Chinese radar also includes combat managerial system, it is not an integrated system like the American AN/SPY-1, but mainly associated with the radar itself, because the same Chinese official information publicized indicates that the radar can be and is integrated to the combat data systems onboard warships.
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[edit] Description
The Type 348 (designation via Janes Fighting Ships, unconfirmed) is a fixed multifunctional active phased array radar system deployed on Type 052C Lanzhou-class. The system was originally discovered on AGE 970 which was functioning as a test ship much like the USS Norton Sound (AVM-1) during the testing of the original RCA AN/SPY-1 radar.
Contrary to the erroneous claims outside China that this radar is based on the Ukraine's Kvant-Radiolokatsiya State Research Institute on Radar Systems Kvant-Radiolokatsiya's newly developed naval phased array system, this radar is completely indigenous. The Ukrainian enterprise openly admitted that its active phased array radar was not purchased by China for evaluation until 2004, the year Lanzhou class destroyer was commissioned, long after the doestic systems has already been installed. According to the Chinese official information released at various defense and electronics / radar exhibitions held in China, the Research Institute of Electronic Technology (also more commonly known as the 14th Institute) at Nanjing is the developer of the system, and the radar is a direct successor to Type H/LJG-346 SAPARS(Shipborne Active Phased Array Radar System) that was completed in 1998, which was also completely indigenous and designed by the same institute. The domestic Chinese radar is larger than the similar Ukrainian radar, and the development for smaller system for smaller ships was not ready yet, so an Ukrainian radar was purchased for evaluation and comparison for the possible adoptation on smaller ships. However, just like the American had concluded during its development of AN/SPY-1, Chinese discovered that the longer range of the phased array radar is far more crutial than higher accuracy. As a result, although the C-band Ukrainian radar was rejected despite having higher accuracy, but Ukrainian expertise was untilized in integrating the anti-stealth radar and ESM with the domestic phased array. It is not surprising that due to the Chinese discovery of the already proven American conclusion, the Chinese warships have similar radar arrangements like American warships in that the long range phased array radar are augmented with additional fire control (illuminator) radars to compensate for its lack of higher accuracy, instead of having a short range multi-functional phased array with the elimination of fire control (illuminator) radars. Even the primary band of operation of the Type 348 is same as that of AN/SPY-1: S-band, as claimed by Chinese sources, which correlates the claim of Jane's Information Group.
However, the Chinese phased array radar differs considerably from the American AN/SPY-1 in that instead of having separate dedicated transmitting and receiving elements, each element of the antenna array of the Chinese radar is capable of both transmitting and receiving, a function similar to the Swedish Erieye active phased array radar, and just like the Swedish system, each transmitting/receiving module of Type 348 radar has separate transmitter and receiver, thus enabling it to continuously receive signals. The radar has reported name as Type 348 Radar and operates in S-band, similar to that of AN/SPY-1, instead of the C-band of the Ukrainian radar. According to Chinese sources, the biggest difficulty Chinese faced in the early 2000's was to reduce the unit cost of the indigenously produced MMIC used for the radar, because the Chinese MMIC cost is 25 times of its American counterparts, around $ 12,500 in comparison to the $ 500 of American MMIC.
[edit] Specifications
Very little is revealed about the radar, and according to the very limited Chinese official information publicized (such as during various defense / electronics and radar exhibitions held in China), only the following are known:
- Maxmimum range: 450 km
- Maxmimum resolution: 0.5 meter
- Primary band of operation: S-band
- Integrated circuitry: GaAs MMIC
[edit] See also
- Type 052C Lanzhou-class
