Reports of China's early warning radar prompt speculation overseas
Staff Reporter 2015-08-26 17:47 (GMT+8)
A 4-million pound radar assembly is lowered into place aboard a converted offshore oil rig at the Kiewit Offshore Services in Texas for what will become the Sea-Based X-band Radar for the US Missile Defense Agency. The Sea-Based X-band Radar is a unique combination of an advanced-radar with a mobile, ocean-going, semi-submersible platform that will provide the US with highly advanced ballistic missile detection with the capability to discriminate hostile missile warheads from decoys or countermeasures, Texas, April 3, 2005. (Photo/CFP)
Previous reports by Chinese media of a large active electronically scanned array radar in the country's northeast has provoked a great deal of attention from around the world, according to Duowei News, a media outlet run by overseas Chinese.
Analysts cited by the website have suggested the radar is China's newly developed anti-ballistic early warning radar and others have suggested it is a space target surveillance radar. Japanese media have recently been hyping the former theory, according to the website.
A recent report in Tokyo-based Kyodo News stated that according to Chinese military documents, in order to build a network of anti-ballistic defense systems the Chinese military plans to launch early-warning satellites to explore the capabilities of enemy ballistic missiles. The report also stated that China has already developed X-band radar, which is key to ground-based interception systems targeted at ballistic missiles at high altitudes during their terminal phase.
The Kyodo News report stated that ballistic missile defense systems are divided into three phases. The initial phase is when the missile has just been fired, the mid-stage is when the missile is outside the Earth's atmosphere and the terminal stage is when the missile enters the Earth's atmosphere. Only the US has successfully developed interception systems for all three phases. If China manages to match this feat, it may shift the strategic balance the country's favor, according to Duowei.
The documents date from November 2014. They stress the importance of creating an early warning system for ballistic missile attacks and make reference to efforts to research and develop X-band ground-based multifunctional radar and an experimental plan for the launch of early-warning satellites. There was no specific launch date mentioned in the documents, however.
China has made almost no attempt to formally explain the development of its ballistic missile defense systems. In January 2010 the country admitted that it was carrying out experiments on mid-phase interception, which raised the hackles of the US. A ballistic missile early warning satellite is indispensable to initial stage interception. In the national defense white paper that Beijing published in May, there was mention of improving the country's strategic early warning capabilities, hinting at the development of ballistic missile defense systems.
The US X-band radar is thought to be able to clearly identify targets at a distance of 4,000 kilometers.
Looking back at China's multiple experiments with ground-based anti-missile tests, it seems that the development of a ballistic early warning missile is within the range of possibility.
Ground-based anti-ballistic missile early warning radars mostly employ an over-the-horizon radar (OTHR), P-band Active Phased Array Radar and X-band ground-based radar. The X-band radar, which has received the most attention from the media, is mainly used in intercepting targets and identifying and tracking, to provide information on the target for homing radar.
China should first establish anti-ballistic early warning capabilities for key strategic areas such as the capital, aiming at a initial phase anti-ballistic early warning system, according to Duowei.
China is most vulnerable to missile attacks from the southeast, also the most advantageous place for US submarines to launch missiles against China. So it is imperative that China deploy a large active electronically scanned array radar to this region, said Duowei.
