Chinese claims they detect F-22 from 450 km away

[collimatrix]

Unless they found some way to bend the fundamental laws of physics I call male bovine excrement. Besides I take most claims by Chinese state run media with a grain of salt... as in pass the salt shaker and leave it here.

I buy that with current technology it would be possible to build a radar that can pick up an F-22 from 450 km away. Essentially you would want an absolutely gigantic, low-frequency, high-powered AESA.

The F-22 would know it was being pinged long before it showed up as a blip on the radar screen because radar range is an inverse fourth power function, and RWR range is an inverse square, and with that mismatch between power and RCS I would expect the target to be notified before the radar.

The radar would also be largely immobile, and tied to a stonking huge generator. We're talking about something that you can take apart and move in several ICBM-sized TEL transports. Optimistically.

The radar would also not be able to tell if it had picked up one F-22 or a whole flock of them, and it would not a have a particularly good idea of which direction they were flying in, and it would be able to offer only an educated guess as to which zip code they were in. The stealth-defeating wavelengths don't have the world's best resolution.


But, with the above provisos, I buy that you could make a radar with modern technology that could pick up a Raptor at 450 km.

[charlielima223]

Unless they found some way to bend the fundamental laws of physics I call male bovine excrement. Besides I take most claims by Chinese state run media with a grain of salt... as in pass the salt shaker and leave it here.

The F-22 would know it was being pinged long before it showed up as a blip on the radar screen because radar range is an inverse fourth power function, and RWR range is an inverse square, and with that mismatch between power and RCS I would expect the target to be notified before the radar.

The radar would also be largely immobile, and tied to a stonking huge generator. We're talking about something that you can take apart and move in several ICBM-sized TEL transports. Optimistically.

But, with the above provisos, I buy that you could make a radar with modern technology that could pick up a Raptor at 450 km.

So its completely possible if the means to do so is completely impractical. Like how its completely possible for me to take a whole cucumber and push it down a steel tube with an opening 2cm across if a use enough force.

[eloise]

This same radar system just got pulverized by the Israelis at Damascus airport, Along with a couple of Russian tor m1.

JY-27

[garrya]

Some important details we need to know
1- How do they know they detect F-22 and not something else?
2- What direction was F-22 facing when it was detected? toward the radar or somewhere else
3- Do F-22 carry fuel tank or Luneburg lens

[hornetfinn]

If there is any truth to that it probably took about 3.2 seconds to implement a software fix. No way is an enemy going to be able to force B-2 bay doors to stay closed by broadcasting a signal.

I thought the same, no override for such an event sounds like a class A accident waiting to happen.

Fix for this would be very easy to do, but I think this kind of incident is very possible. Probably nobody thought that military radar would lock up on B-2 during landing. B-2 would be extremely vulnerable during landing and such self protection system would make some sense. I think that kind of system would involve retracting landing gear and closing all doors. It would also likely abort the landing approach especially if it was flying using autopilot. AFAIK, B-2s use autopilot for landing approach until something like 500ft altitude. I doubt locking up would affect weapon bay doors or combat capability. It might affect radio transmissions to and from B-2 like with the tower, though.

I bet they did something for this afterwards if it really happened.