Radar of the XXI century
In November 2019, Defense Aerospace reported that a new airborne radar station with an active phased antenna array (AFAR) was created for the Chinese J-11B fighter (nothing more than a copy of the Su-27SK). This is more than interesting considering the large fleet of these machines. However, it is even more curious to look at the situation as a whole.
What is an AFAR radar? Without going into details - the most technologically advanced radar for fighters today. It is used for the most advanced fighters of the fourth generation, as well as for fighters of the last, fifth, generation. So the F-22 Raptor radar AN / APG-77 with an active phased antenna array, and the F-35 - AN / APG-81. What exactly is the advantage of such a concept? Without going into details, the AFAR radar can detect targets faster, at a much greater distance, and at the same time has outstanding reliability.
AFAR works on the principle of signal phase control: the system is based on transceiver modules or PPM (the F-22 has about two thousand of them). Changing the phases of the signals emitted by the transmitting and receiving modules give the AFAR radar the ability to form a powerful directional beam, making it possible to solve problems much more efficiently than the old pulse-Doppler radars. Radar with PFAR or passive phased antenna array - the forerunner of radar with AFAR - works differently. PFAR does not have active devices: to generate a radio signal, a single radio transmitter is used for the entire system, after which it is distributed among all emitting elements.
With some similarity between the concepts of the radar and the AFAR, it is more reliable (the failure of one APM will not become a big problem), it is easier and more versatile. “Previously, if, for example, a transmitter was out of order, the plane would become“blind”. And here one or two cells, even a dozen, are affected, and the remaining thousands continue to work,”says the general director of NIIP im. Tikhomirova Yuri Bely. As for the versatility, the radar with AFAR, unlike others, allows you to simultaneously search and detect targets, perform cartography and even jam a potential enemy. Redirecting some of the modules to solve specific problems.
The disadvantages of active phased antenna arrays indicate their high price, but you need to understand that modern military technologies (and not only modern ones) are usually more expensive than representatives of previous generations. Especially at the stage of their early application.
Battle for air and market
For Russia, the introduction of radar with AFAR into its fighters will really be an innovation, no matter how strange it may sound. The country has not yet physically adopted a single serial fighter with such technologies. The Su-35S and Su-30SM planes supplied to the troops have radar with PFAR: "Irbis" and "Bars", respectively. And the MiG-35 and Su-57 (both should have radar with AFAR) exist so far only as prototypes, although the first serial Su-57 is to be delivered to the Aerospace Forces this year. It was even shown recently.
And what about China? The J-11Bs mentioned above originally had old Type 1474 radars: according to experts, this is nothing more than a Chinese version of the old Soviet radar H011. As it became known now, tests of the improved J-11B fighter with a new radar are being carried out in a desert area and are quite successful. In the future, the new radar with AFAR will equip Chinese J-11B fighters with new PL-15 aircraft missiles. “Unlike the black radar cones (domes) at the front of the aircraft, which are typical for our J-11B fighters, the new radars are installed under the white cone (dome). The new radars allow the use of long-range missiles,”the Chinese television channel CCTV said in a statement.
Recall that the PL-15 is a new long-range missile with an active radar homing head, which has already aroused great interest in the West.
In total, according to data from open sources, China has at its disposal 95 J-11 and 110 J-11B / BS fighters. However, soon all these machines can be replaced by another plane - purely Chinese (with some reservations). The fact is that already now the PRC has about 300 J-10 fighters in its composition. About 50 fighters of this number belong to the J-10B version and have radar with AFAR, an "unobtrusive" air intake, a modern forward-looking optical station and a new WS-10A engine. In 2018, it became known that a new J-10C fighter had entered service with China, which, among other things, has improved stealth.
You can, of course, laugh at the Chinese, saying that the J-10 is a "copy" of the Israeli "Lavi" or something else. However, you need to understand that even now the latest versions of the "Chinese" are superior in terms of avionics to the most modern serial Russian fighters (flight performance is a completely different issue, we will not consider it now).
It is also noteworthy that the Chinese plane is relatively cheap: at least in the early configuration. According to open source data, the price of one J-10 ranges from $ 30 million to $ 40 million. Even if we raise the bar to 60 million, it will be significantly lower than the export value of the Su-35S. Recall that in 2018, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official publication of the Russian government, with reference to the Chinese publication Phoenix, reported that the details of the contract for the supply of Su-35 to China were officially announced at the Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. Its total price is $ 2.5 billion. If you recalculate the cost of one car, you get $ 104 million per plane.
This is not surprising when you consider that the Indian-assembled Su-30MKI was previously priced at about $ 80 million. That is, roughly speaking, it was at the price level of the F-35A at the time of the deployment of the serial production of this combat aircraft. If you try to equip the Su-30/35 with a hypothetical Russian radar with an active phased antenna array, their price will rise even more. Such "amusing" arithmetic.
It's five
From a formal point of view, the new Russian Su-57 and the new Chinese J-20, also belonging to the fifth generation, have radars of the same level. The Russian vehicle should be equipped with a radar station with AFAR N036 Belka, which has approximately 1,500 PPM. Presumably, the J-20 radar has similar characteristics.
However, you need to understand that the J-20 has already been put into service, and in the future the rate of production of this aircraft will only grow. In this regard, the main intrigue remains the combat capabilities and the price of the car: now it is very difficult to judge both about one and the other due to lack of data. But if the Chinese succeed in at least half, the Su-57 risks getting a very dangerous enemy on the world arms market.
