What Is a Radar Alert?

Early warning radar is a kind of long-range target search radar. Generally, it uses ultra-high transmitting power of more than several megawatts, electric scanning antenna arrays with a height of several tens of meters and a width of several hundred meters. The operating frequency is in ultra high frequency (UHF) The high-frequency (VHF) band is used to reduce atmospheric absorption losses. It is mainly used to find long-range, medium-range and short-range ballistic missiles, and to determine key parameters such as their instantaneous position, speed, launch point, and impact point, and to provide missile early warning information for the highest military agencies.

The early warning radar is a long-range search radar. Generally, it uses an electric scanning antenna array with an ultra-high transmitting power of more than 12 MW and a height of several tens of meters and a width of several hundred meters. The operating frequency is at ultra-high frequency (

Introduction of early warning radar

The early warning aircraft is the information hub and command center of the air-based early warning detection system. It integrates multiple functions such as early warning detection, information fusion, information distribution, and command control. It is responsible for large-scale search, tracking, and identification of air, sea, and ground targets. , And direct and guide our aircraft, ships, and shore-based fire control systems to combat. Early warning aircraft have played an important role in various local wars, especially the Gulf War, Kosovo War, and Libyan War, and have become indispensable important equipment for modern warfare.

The airborne early warning radar overcomes the limitation of the earth's curvature on the line of sight because it is set up on an aircraft flying at high altitude, expands the detection range of low and ultra low altitudes, finds more enemy aircraft and missiles, and provides more early warning time for the air defense system. Airborne early warning radars are playing an irreplaceable role in air target detection and tracking, sea surface target detection and identification, battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance, and precision weapon guidance and control.

Divided in terms of systems and capabilities, the development of early warning aircraft and airborne early warning radars has gone through three stages:

Phase 1: Radar + Aircraft to achieve an air radar station. It is represented by E-2A / B / C series early warning aircraft. Its latest model is APS-145 radar. It uses moving target display (MTD) technology to make it have a certain land-based detection capability. So far, the E-2C is still the world's equipment. The largest number of early warning aircraft.

Phase 2: Radar + communication + accusation + aircraft to achieve the air command post. It is represented by E-3A AWACS (Airborne Early Warning and Control System). Radar mechanical scanning, using pulse Doppler system (PD), the ability to look down under the background of strong clutter has been greatly improved.

Phase 3: Radar + communication + network + accusation + battlefield management + aircraft, to achieve full battlefield element management and control, early warning aircraft has become the core hub of the information-based combat system. The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier formation Advanced Hawkeye (E-2D) carrier-based fixed-wing early warning aircraft is a typical representative. Its radar uses an active phased array system combined with space-time adaptive processing technology (STAP) for the combination of machine-to-sweep. And interference suppression is stronger. On the one hand, in view of the increasingly three-dimensional, integrated and networked features of modern warfare, early warning aircraft need to combine various combat forces, combat units, and various combat elements widely distributed in the three-dimensional space into an organic whole to achieve reconnaissance. Intelligence, command and control, fire strike, information confrontation and comprehensive support are coordinated, and early warning aircraft are at the core of the entire combat system. On the other hand, stealth aircraft has become a real threat, the electromagnetic countermeasures environment is becoming more and more complex, and cruise missiles are widely used. The AWACS radar is facing unprecedented challenges. It is necessary to continuously expand the functions of the AWACS radar to greatly improve its anti-stealth, anti-interference, The ability of clutter and target recognition improves the ability of early warning aircraft to cooperate with the system ^[2] .

Development Trend of Early Warning Radar

As an important strategic equipment, airborne early warning radar has received great attention, and its technology has developed rapidly. From the perspective of the development of the world's most advanced types of early warning aircraft, it is a process of continuous improvement in use. The main improvement direction is to improve the radar clutter suppression ability, anti-jamming ability and ability to detect small targets. Especially with the development of the 4th generation stealth fighter, the airborne early warning radar faces extremely severe challenges. It must be in radar technology. Only by making innovations on the ground can there be a fundamental breakthrough in distributed / networked collaborative detection, active detection and passive combination, dual / multi-station detection, multi-channel active array system, real-time environment-aware intelligent system, prior knowledge utilization, and advanced New technologies such as signal processing will be the development direction of the next generation of airborne early warning radars.