Type 704 Radar
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The Type 704 is a
counter-battery radar A counter-battery radar (alternatively weapon tracking radar or COBRA) is a radar system that detects artillery projectiles fired by one or more guns, howitzers, mortars or rocket launchers and, from their trajectories, locates the position on ...
designed to accurately locate the hostile artillery, rocket and ground-to-ground missile launcher immediately after the firing of enemy, and support friendly artillery by providing guidance of counter fire. Built by
NORINCO China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, doing business internationally as Norinco Group (North Industries Corporation), and known within China as China Ordnance Industries Group Corporation Limited (), is a Chinese state-owned defense ...
, it was first displayed publicly in 1988's ASIADEX defence show.


Development

Type 704 radar shares the same root as its larger cousin, the
SLC-2 Radar The SLC-2 Radar is a Chinese active electronically scanned array counter-battery radar designed to locate hostile artillery, rocket and ground-to-ground missile launchers immediately after firing, and to support friendly artillery by guiding count ...
: four
AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder radar Hughes AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder Weapon Locating System is a mobile radar system developed in the late 1970s by Hughes Aircraft Company, achieving Initial Operational Capability in 1980 and full deployment in 1984. Currently manufactured by ThalesRay ...
have been sold to China and this had become the foundation of SLC-2 radar development. Aside from political reasons, the US$10 million plus unit price tag of TPQ-37 (including after sale logistic support) was simply too costly for Chinese. Decision was made to develop a domestic equivalent after mastering the technologies of TPQ-37. After the initial test of TPQ-37 in Tangshan (汤山) Range near
Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
in 1988, and in
Xuanhua District Xuanhua is an urban district of Zhangjiakou in northwestern Hebei Province, China. Xuanhua is a very old city with a rich military and agricultural history. Xuanhua was historically the "Gateway to Beijing", which lies to its southeast. As a c ...
in October of the same year, several shortcomings of TPQ-37 were discovered and further intensive tests were conducted and completed in 1994. The requirement of the Chinese domestic equivalent was subsequently modified to address these issues revealed in trials. Due to the limitation of the Chinese industrial capability at the time, decision was made to develop the Chinese domestic equivalent in several steps. The first step was to develop a smaller one, which would result in the Chinese equivalent of
AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder radar Hughes AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder weapon locating system is a mobile radar system developed in the mid-late 1970s by Hughes Aircraft Company and manufactured by Northrop Grumman and ThalesRaytheonSystems, achieving initial operational capability in ...
, Type 704 series radar, and based on the experience gained from this program, a more capable larger version in the same class of
AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder radar Hughes AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder Weapon Locating System is a mobile radar system developed in the late 1970s by Hughes Aircraft Company, achieving Initial Operational Capability in 1980 and full deployment in 1984. Currently manufactured by ThalesRay ...
would be developed, which eventually resulted in SLC-2 series.


Type 704 radar

Type 704 is the first of the Type 704 series of
counter-battery radar A counter-battery radar (alternatively weapon tracking radar or COBRA) is a radar system that detects artillery projectiles fired by one or more guns, howitzers, mortars or rocket launchers and, from their trajectories, locates the position on ...
s. Developmental work of Type 704 begun in parallel with the introduction of AN/TPQ-37 radar into Chinese service, and the reported experience gained on the Chinese reverse engineering of TPQ-37 has influenced Type 704 radar. One problem revealed in the tests was that the reliability of TPQ-37 is much lower than what was claimed. The reason was that when TPQ-37 was deployed in environments with high humidity and high level of rainfall (southern China), high salinity (coastal regions), high altitude (southwestern China), and subjected to daily high temperature differences (northwestern China), malfunctions occurs more frequently. Type 704 radar was designed specifically to improve the reliability against these harsh environmental factors.


Type 704A radar

Type 704 is followed by its successor, Type 704A, which is fully solid state, fully digitized version, which further improved reliability and simplified logistics, and thus reduced the operational cost. One of the limitations of TPQ-37 revealed in tests was that it was less effective against projectiles with flat trajectory, so it is much more effective against howitzer and mortar rounds than rounds from
130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46) The 130 mm towed field gun M-46 (russian: 130-мм пушка M-46) is a manually loaded, towed 130 mm artillery piece, manufactured in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. It was first observed by the west in 1954. For many years, the M-46 ...
and its Chinese derivative Type 59-1. Type 704A radar is designed to overcome this shortcoming by improving the capability against rounds with flat trajectory.


BL904 radar

A further improved variant based on Type 704A designated as BL904 has also been introduced. This latest version of Type 704 radar family reportedly utilizes the more advanced lens arrangement for its planar passive phased array antenna, instead of earlier simple horn arranged used in earlier versions. Unconfirmed Chinese claims also concludes that the BL904 radar also incorporate former-USSR counter-battery radar Zoopark-1 radar, two of which was purchased by China from Ukraine, but such claim has yet to be verified by official sources and sources outside China.


Specifications

* S - band * Range (against 81-mm mortar round sized target): >


CS/RB1 radar

At the 9th
Zhuhai Airshow China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (), also known as the Airshow China () or Zhuhai Airshow (), is the largest airshow and aerospace trade expo in China. It has been held in even years in Zhuhai, Guangdong since 1996. Hist ...
held in November 2012, a new, lightweight, counterbattery radar designated as CS/RB1 made its public debut. Like Type 704 and BL904 radars, CS/RB1 is also designed primarily for detecting incoming projectiles down to the size of mortar round, though larger objects can be tracked as well. CS/RB1 is designed to be a lightweight version of Type 704/BL904 to be carried by individual soldiers (when systems are breaking down into portions). CS/RB1 radar operates is a passive phased radar operates in L-band, and it is fully solid state, highly digitized, conformal array in cylindrical shape.,CS/RB1 radar
/ref> and it can be airdropped.


References

1. ''Fire Control Radar Technology'', Dec 1999 issue,
Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...
Electronics Research Institute (also known a
Institute No. 206 of China Arms Industry Group Corporation
,
Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...
, December, 1999, ,Domestic Chinese SN: CN 61-1214/TJ. 2. ''Fire Control Radar Technology'', Feb 1995 issue,
Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...
Electronics Research Institute (also known a
Institute No. 206 of China Arms Industry Group Corporation
,
Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by #Name, other names, is the list of capitals in China, capital of Shaanxi, Shaanxi Province. A Sub-provincial division#Sub-provincial municipalities, sub-provincial city o ...
, February, 1995, ,Domestic Chinese SN: CN 61-1214/TJ. 3. ''Ordnance Knowledge'', Jul 2007 issue, Ordnance Knowledge Magazine Publishing House,
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, July, 2007, {{ISSN, 1000-4912, Domestic Chinese SN: CN 11-1470/TJ. Weapon Locating Radar Military radars of the People's Republic of China Military equipment introduced in the 1980s