KLJ-7A 3-aerial AESA radar has 300° field of view
China Electronics Technology Company’s (CETC) No. 14 Research Institute said in a press statement on Nov. 9 that its KLJ-7A 3-aerial AESA fire control radar has a 300° field of view (FOV).
This allows the fighter to act as an airborne early warning platform as well.
NRIET KLJ-7A AESA Radar
First, an improved version of the KLJ-7A from Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology (NRIET). The KLJ-7A was originally revealed during Airshow China 2016 as a proposed AESA radar for the Block-III.
As per reports at the time, the KLJ-7A could detect ‘fighter-sized’ targets at up to 170 km, simultaneously track up to 15 targets, and engage four of them at once. The KLJ-7A is said to have more than 1,000 solid-state transceiver modules (TRM), providing it with much improved resistance to electronic warfare (EW).
However, the variant of the KLJ-7A apparently shown at Airshow China 2018 was equipped with slanted side-panel arrays on both sides, thus providing a wider detection range without the need for a mechanical arm or swashplate to move the main array. In addition, NRIET also unveiled a KLJ-7A variant with a moving array, it is possible that this version is meant to be a lower-cost alternative to the multi-array version.
LETRI LKF601E Air-Cooled AESA Radar
Second, AVIC officially unveiled its proposed air-cooled AESA radar – the LKF601E. Interestingly, the radar shares the same performance specifications of the KLJ-7A (albeit based reports from 2016), i.e., the ability to detect ‘fighter-sized’ targets at 170 km, track 15 targets and engage four simultaneously.
According to LETRI, the LKF601E’s synthetic aperture radar (SAR) offers “high-resolution real-time imaging capability” with ground-moving target indication (GMTI). In other words, the LKF601E can lock onto tanks and other moving vehicles and engage them with radar-guided air-to-ground missiles (AGM). The radar’s SAR has a capture resolution of 1m2. In terms of air-to-sea, it has a range of 200-220 km.
Developed by the 601 Institute – i.e., Leihua Electronic Technology Research Institute (LETRI) – the radar is marketed as readily compatible with the JF-17, including, apparently, the Block-I and Block-II. In fact, a marketing video clearly shows LETRI engineers installing the LKF601E to a JF-17 prototype.
Compatibility with the JF-17 Block-I and Block-II is significant.
Firstly, it confirms that an AESA radar can be installed onto the JF-17 with relatively limited changes to the fighter. This removes a previously-held concern about AESA radars being too heavy and too power-hungry for the lightweight fighter (at least without significant changes to the fighter).
Secondly, the availability of the LKF601E implies that the PAF can proceed with upgrading its Block-I and Block-II fleet without necessarily having to remanufacture the fighters into Block-IIIs. Of course, the PAF could potentially opt for the latter route in the long-term.
The PAF has yet to officially reveal which radar it selected for the Block-III. However, considering that the previous PAF Chief of Air Staff (CAS) announced that the Block-III’s design was “frozen”, the radar decision has been made. Based on AVIC’s marketing video, one can confirm that at least the LKF601E was fitted to the JF-17, but it is unclear if that necessarily applies to the Block-III.