{{Short description, Type of aircraft radar The JL-10A airborne

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

is a highly digitized

pulse-Doppler radar A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars and ...

with slotted planar array developed for the

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

(PLAAF) as a replacement for the older Type 232H

currently employed by the Chinese air force. The

is built to

MIL-STD-1553 MIL-STD-1553 is a military standard published by the United States Department of Defense that defines the mechanical, electrical, and functional characteristics of a serial data bus. It was originally designed as an avionic data bus for use with ...

standard so it is compatible with western electronics and weaponry. Originally, the

is capable of simultaneously tracking 10 targets (later to be upgraded to 15) and engaging 2 (later to be upgraded to 6) of the 10 tracked when using

semi-active radar homing Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive de ...

air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

s, or 4 of the 10 tracked when using

active radar homing Active radar homing (ARH) is a missile guidance method in which a missile contains a radar transceiver (in contrast to semi-active radar homing, which uses only a receiver) and the electronics necessary for it to find and track its target ...

s. Although the

has the terrain following and terrain avoidance capabilities, they are rarely used, instead, it is compatible with navigational pods such as the Chinese Blue Sky low altitude navigation pod that enable the aircraft to have these two capabilities. The reason for using navigational pod with terrain following / avoidance radar in conjunction with JL-10A is to have a dedicated terrain following / avoidance mode purely for low level flight, while the fire control modes are continuous and separated from navigational modes such terrain following /avoidance, so that JL-10A would constantly stay at fire control modes instead of switching between terrain following / avoidance modes and other modes of operation. Unlike the much more advanced electronically scanned

phased array In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving th ...

airborne

s with each scan lasts only

millisecond A millisecond (from '' milli-'' and second; symbol: ms) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one thousandth (0.001 or 10−3 or 1/1000) of a second and to 1000 microseconds. A unit of 10 milliseconds may be calle ...

s, the JL-10A is a slotted planar array

with each scan last from several

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...

s to a dozen

s or greater, switching between different operational modes would take too long and thus deemed unacceptable under intense combat situations, so it would be far better to stay in the same operational mode to avoid any interruption under these situations. Reportedly, the terrain following / avoidance technology of JL-10A was developed from those originally obtained from captured

terrain following radar Terrain-following radar (TFR) is a military aerospace technology that allows a very-low-flying aircraft to automatically maintain a relatively constant altitude above ground level and therefore make detection by enemy radar more difficult. It is ...

s from downed

A-6 Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 r ...

and General Dynamics F-111 during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. In 2001, JL-10A achieved a 32:1 DBS (Doppler beam sharpening) capability, but it still lags behind the 48:1 DBS capability of AN/APG-66, and it was not several years later when the JL-10A was finally upgraded with 64:1 DBS capability like that of

AN/APG-68 The AN/APG-68 radar is a long range (up to 296 km) Pulse-doppler radar designed by Westinghouse (now Northrop Grumman) to replace AN/APG-66 radar in the F-16 Fighting Falcon. The AN/APG-68(V)8 and earlier radar system consists of the follow ...

. Around the same time, JL-10A was also upgraded with the capability to simultaneously engage 15 targets and engage 6 of the 15 tracked. By 2004, SAR capability was incorporated, and inverse SAR (ISAR) capability is reportedly under development. The radar has already been tested and successfully installed on JH-7A Flying Leopard fighter-bombers and is capable of launching a scope of weapons including the

C-802 The YJ-83 (; NATO reporting name: CSS-N-8 Saccade) is a Chinese subsonic anti-ship cruise missile. It is manufactured by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Third Academy.Gromley et al.: page 101 Description The YJ-83 uses m ...

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A goo ...

and the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

Kh-31 The Kh-31 (russian: Х-31; AS-17 'Krypton') is a Russian air-to-surface missile carried by aircraft such as the MiG-29 or Su-27. It is capable of Mach 3.5 and was the first supersonic anti-ship missile that could be launched by tactical aircraf ...

. The JL-10A will be fitted on the Chinese/Pakistani FC-1s upon customer's requests. Specification: *Frequency: X band *Maximum detection range: 104 km *Maximum look-up tracking range: 80 km *Maximum look-down tracking range: 54 km *Maximum look-up engagement range: 40 km *Maximum look-down engagement range: 32 km *Total modes of operation: 11 *Sector of scan: +/- 60 degrees *Maximum targets tracked: 15 *Maximum targets engaged: 6 *Developer: CLETRI (607th Institute)

References

JL-10A
Aircraft radars Military radars of the People's Republic of China Military equipment introduced in the 1990s