The US military was utterly desperate. Besides the guidance of airborne early warning aircraft, China has actually achieved ground-based VHF radar-guided missiles.
In the field of radar technology, China is the first country in the world to achieve VHF radar detection of stealth targets. However, VHF radars have long suffered from many technical bottlenecks: their equipment is large and heavy, with poor resolution, low detection accuracy, and limited target recognition capabilities. At the same time, they are easily affected by ground reflection waves and often overlap with civilian signals, which weakens their low-altitude detection capability, results in discontinuous airspace coverage, insufficient anti-jamming performance, and poor adaptability to battlefield environments. For traditional VHF radars, the detection accuracy may only be within tens of kilometers, making it difficult to play an effective role in actual combat. It is precisely because of these limitations that Western countries abandoned the development of VHF radars after World War II, shifting their focus to microwave radar development.
However, our anti-stealth VHF radar has solved these problems. But according to Western military circles, even if the PLA's anti-stealth radar is advanced, being able to control precision within hundreds of meters would already be solving a world-class problem. Yet the anti-stealth radar precision we publicly disclosed reaches the 10-meter level of microwave radar, providing the possibility for VHF radar to guide missiles.
To develop VHF anti-stealth radar, the first foundation is mastering digital array radar. We know that phased array radar development has four stages, or can be called four generations. They are passive phased array also known as passive phased array, then active phased array, followed by digital array, and finally software radar.
As early as around 2012, during the last major upgrade of the main battle radars of the three armed services, we had already mastered digital array radar technology. After the upgrade, the main battle radars of the navy, army, and air force were basically all digital array radars. For example, our KJ-500 is a digital array gallium nitride active phased array early warning aircraft.
It is precisely on this high-precision technology that China successfully realized precise guidance of VHF radar. Traditional anti-stealth operations required multiple-step collaboration such as "VHF radar discovery → aircraft takeoff search → fire control radar lock-on → missile attack". However, after achieving cross-platform operations, we can directly discover with the VHF radar, then deploy aircraft to launch missiles, and guide air-to-air missiles directly with the VHF radar to destroy targets.
Many netizens are very puzzled: since there is airborne early warning aircraft guidance, why do we still need ground-based radar guidance? Because airborne early warning aircraft reconnaissance is targeted at specific areas, with a search range not as wide as ground-based radar. Moreover, airborne early warning aircraft are limited by their loitering time and need to be rotated and replenished. Additionally, as high-value aerial platforms, they are easily targeted. On the other hand, ground-based VHF radars can search 24 hours a day and are difficult to strike inland. Therefore, it can serve as a good partner to airborne early warning aircraft.
In wartime, ground-based VHF radars can share information with airborne early warning aircraft, which can accurately fill blind spots. Ground-based VHF radars have advantages over high-altitude stealth targets, while airborne early warning aircraft have advantages over medium and low-altitude stealth targets. After data fusion between both sides, errors can be significantly reduced, allowing focused searches in key areas.
Furthermore, our VHF radar has a longer detection range than our airborne early warning aircraft. Once our VHF radar detects the target, airborne early warning aircraft and fighter jets can promptly move forward, waiting for the target to enter the strike zone.
It can be said that once US stealth aircraft and stealth missiles enter the range of our VHF radar, they will find it hard to escape destruction. This result means that China has built a 24-hour anti-stealth kill chain.
Moreover, VHF radar is not only capable of guiding air-to-air missiles but can also provide guidance for surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles.
What is the current situation between China and the US? China has built a multi-dimensional cross-platform anti-stealth kill chain. This means that in China's systemized operations, there is no difference between the F-22, F-35, and F-15 of the US. The J-10C can destroy the F-35 through ground-based radar or airborne early warning aircraft guidance. However, the US lags behind in airborne early warning aircraft development and does not possess anti-stealth radar technology. China maintains a stealth advantage; our J-20 and J-35 can penetrate US air defense systems.
This leaves the US military in a difficult position. The US military has completely given up and even seems to be self-destructive. The US now wants to cancel the E-7 airborne early warning aircraft and replace the carrier-based E-2D with the Air Force's E-3.
This is great news for the People's Liberation Army. The E-2D airborne early warning aircraft uses UHF frequency band, which belongs to decimeter wave. Radars of this frequency band are unlikely to be used as fire control radars, greatly restricting its ability to provide reliable and real-time terminal guidance for missiles (especially those requiring high-precision mid-course updates). As a carrier-based aircraft, its small size, limited payload, and lower flight altitude mean it can only detect, identify, track, and distribute target information. Even worse, due to the radar being installed on a rotating platform, it takes several seconds for one full rotation, resulting in very low data update rates.
Furthermore, it cannot handle complex, large-scale, multi-layered aerial campaign-level command and control (such as simultaneously commanding dozens of aircraft for air combat, ground attacks, and electronic warfare coordination), nor can it deeply intervene in complex electronic warfare management (such as precise guidance interference). Its capabilities and capacities fall short compared to dedicated aerial command posts like the E-7, and it cannot even replace the E-3 airborne early warning aircraft with mechanical scanning radars of the US military.
Therefore, the core value of the E-2D lies in serving as the "thousand-mile eye" and "information exchange hub" of the aircraft carrier strike group, providing early warning, target indication, and networked information distribution, building a battlefield situation map. In other words, if the US uses the E-2D, the airborne early warning aircraft will lose its role as a command center, "fire control-level guidance core," and "powerful electronic warfare platform."
If the US intends to build a systematic operational network, it must not lack airborne early warning aircraft. Now, the US is giving up voluntarily due to the gap in airborne early warning aircraft technology with China, which is indeed good news.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7515455570866962985/
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