China’s new satellite radar tech can detect stealth aircraft: Report

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) – China’s new space-borne radar technology can detect fast-moving stealth aircraft day and night, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday, citing a study.

Beijing can already track stealth aircraft with optical satellites, like the Jilin-1 constellation tracking an F-22. However, optical cameras have limitations—they can't operate at night and are hindered by weather conditions like clouds or fog, while radar satellites work reliably in those circumstances.

In 2022, China launched the Ludi Tance No. 1 (LT-1), a dual-satellite radar system designed to detect low-observable targets. Since then, Beijing has expanded its radar satellite network, boosting its ability to monitor large areas from space.

A study published this month in the Chinese publication Journal of Radars suggested that such devices may have the capability to detect stealth aircraft.

The research showed that space-borne bistatic radar can effortlessly suppress clutter, enabling it to detect extremely weak, slow-moving targets as well as faster-moving targets.

“When the target is a small moving object, its RCS is inherently small, and given the long detection range of space-borne radar systems, the returned echo signal becomes extremely weak, severely degrading target detection performance,” the research team led by Chen Junli, lead satellite designer at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, wrote in the study.

RCS refers to radar cross-section, a term for measuring how detectable an object is by radar.

“To address this challenge, the space-borne bistatic radar architecture leverages a key characteristic: under large azimuth bistatic angles, there is a high probability of significant RCS enhancement for the target,” the research team added.

The simulation modeled a stealth target with a 10 square meter RCS, typical of some modern stealth platforms when viewed from above. The radar operated in the L-band with a 4-kilowatt transmission power, similar to China’s LT-1 satellites.

If these findings hold true, satellites capable of detecting low-RCS, slow-moving aircraft from space could revolutionize warfare, shifting strategies in air defense, bombing, and global surveillance.