055 Large Destroyer Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
It is very likely that the 346B uses GAN MMICs. Please note that at the 2014 Radar Show, the designer of the 346 radar, Nanjing Institute 14, exhibited the SLC-2 radar using GAN, which also uses the S band like the 346 radar, and the 055 just started construction in 2014.
Frankly this does not mean anything unless you have some evidence that the two radars are related. CETC has dozens of radars operating in the S-band, and this radar in particular is primarily a counter-battery radar, which is quite distant from a ship-based air defense radar.
Apparently the official SLC-2 display I was given stated that its combat targets include artillery shells, tactical aircraft, drones, and helicopters.
I don't quite understand why you think this radar is not used for air defense.
What is even more difficult for me to understand is that when a design unit can use GAN on land radars with weaker heat dissipation capabilities, you think it will not be used on larger shipborne radars?
What is the reason?
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So the PLA is using GaN tech on a counter-battery radar but not on the radars installed on its most advance cruiser? Does that logic makes sense to you?
Impressive is your ascription. Widely accepted is also your ascription. I don't find either the KJ-2000 or the Type 346 particularly impressive. The KJ-2000 was only developed locally because the US stopped the Russian/Israeli A-50 deal from proceeding. If the PLAAF had the technology to match or beat the M-205 Phalcon at that time which itself was 1990s technology, they would already have done it by themselves instead of going through the Israelis. As for the baseline 346, the fact that it is air-cooled means its radiative output is subpar, almost by definition. How many other naval AESAs do you know of out there that are air-cooled instead of liquid-cooled?
What are you talking about different points? I'm talking about start date of construction. How in the world is this metric different points? The 052D started construction in 2012, while the 055 started construction in 2014, which means that these designs (and their technology levels) would have been frozen prior to these dates, and actually probably many years prior to these dates. FYI 172 Kunming STARTED construction in 2012. The fact that it was also launched in 2012 means less than nothing in the present context.
Makes sense to me. A counter-battery radar is orders of magnitude less complex than a naval Aegis-type radar system, which means much longer lead times/development cycles. A naval AESA system which came out in 2014 would certainly have started development many years prior to a counter-battery radar which also came out in 2014.
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Most modern counter-battery radars can detect and track tactical aircraft, drones, and helicopters. Its primary use is still a weapons locating radar.
I did not say this. I was simply pointing out that the SLC-2E using GaN transmitters does not mean anything in relation to the Type 346. However, now that you brought it up, I will note that GaN technology was used on land based radar, including counter-battery radars (ie. AN/TPQ-53), long before it was used for larger maritime panels.
Yes? Not saying that it is necessarily the case, but there could be many reasons the PLA decides not to use GaN for the 055. I think ruling it out just because a counter-battery radar uses GaN transmitters doesn't make any sense.
Please note that this is the US approach, in contrast, China first used AESA radar on the large ship-borne radar 346, while the land-based mobile radar of the same period used PESA.
Obviously, China's practice is to use advanced radar technology on large ship-borne radars rather than land-based radars.
Considering the deal for Phalcon was made in 1996 (with years of negotiation prior to that, meaning we are talking early 1990s PRC technology confidence), and considering the PLA's willingness to pursue both imported and domestic systems sometimes simultaneously for risk mitigation purposes, the fact that the PRC wanted to buy Phalcon doesn't mean that their radar industry had not reached highly competitive levels by the new millennium.
The Type 346's peer of the era, the UK SAMPSON radar is air cooled as well.
Needless to say, things have since moved onto liquid cooling, but that doesn't draw anything away from Type 346 compared to other notable peers at the time. In fact, back in the early to mid 2000s, Type 346 and SAMPSON were arguably the first of the naval AESA MFRs of their given array size installed onto surface combatants.
The lead 052D was launched in 2012, yes -- what makes you think that its construction started in 2012?
I'm sure you know as well as all of us that starting construction of a ship like this begins a few years (anywhere from 2-3 years) before launch, with steel cutting for module fabrication. I.e. the lead 052D's construction would have only begun likely in 2010.
The lead 055 was launched in 2017 -- similarly, it started construction a few years prior to 2017 as well, and its construction would have only begun in 2014-15.
Comparing like with like, would give us a 4-5 year gap between the equivalent stages between the lead 052D and lead 055.
Or alternatively, the willingness for GaN to be applied onto less important systems such as export cleared counter battery radars is a reflection that the material was mastered so well by industry and proliferated so widely that they could be trickled down to systems like that.
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In 2015 or 2016, they also marketed SLC-7 (a high end VSR AESA for air defense), with GaN as well, an example of a radar on the higher end of the spectrum.
Putting it another way, perhaps the real question we should be asking is by the mid 2010s, how many new model, in-production PLA AESAs and antennas in general had not moved onto using GaN?
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