BY ANDREI PINKOV

Under the guiding ideology of active defense, China has held a certain positive attitude toward the research of the stealth technology in recent years with the consideration of such factors as the future focus of the Chinese air force on the battles outside of the border and the future possible conflicts between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. At present, the major effort is concentrated on the development of different kinds of radar wave absorbing materials. As was confirmed by the reliable source from the military research institute, the primary plan on the upgraded JH7 fighter bombers which are now being designed is to put the radar wave absorbing material on them without making any changes to their existing external structure. In the meantime, the similar experiment has already been conducted on the J8 2 planes. According to the same source, the absorbing materials are now under development in China such as the BD21 series productions.

BD21 series included SF18 and SM07. With the ability to absorb the reflection source of the 2-18 GHz wide frequency radar, SF18 is principally used on the stealthy fighter planes, bombers, and cruise missiles. The reflex loss of the materials reaches -10 dB and their relative absorption ratio exceeds 60 per cent. The SM07 is a radar absorbing membrane, which is mainly used on the naval vessels and tanks for the absorption of the reflection source of the 2-18 Ghz wide frequency radar, with its reflex loss of -15 dB and its relative absorption ratio of over 60 per cent. All these materials are being developed by the Seek Optics Technical Co. Ltd which is located in Beijing and has the Chinese name of the XIKAI.

The concept of stealth that China is working on also includes the avoidance of acute angles in the external design of the new Luhai destroyer of the Chinese navy.

With a look at the role that the stealthy bombers played during the Persian Gulf War, the Chinese army has now been working even harder, both in theory and in practice, on the research of both the stealth and the anti-stealth technology.

In the development of the anti-stealth radar technology, the focus is on the phased array radar and the AWACS. It is especially emphasized that the priority should be given to the development of the small-sized AWACS suitable for the partial wars. At the same time, efforts should also be made to develop the ultra-visual radar and the millimeter-wave radar.

At present, the X-band solid phased array radar and the AWACS-carried radar are both being developed by No.607 Institute( Kanwa news Andrei Pinkov).

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