The Liaoning mounts the Type 346 radars you see on the Type 052C, set on four fixed arrays, and then on top of that, you have the Type 382 Fregat style radar you see on the Type 054A, plus two Type 364 surface search radars.
That's a lot of radar for ship, even when compared to other carriers. You certainly need the radars to detect and track both friendly and threat aircraft, direct and vector friendlies to the threats. In the case of the Liaoning, it inherits the layout of the Kuznetsov which has the set of fixed PARs, plus the Fregat on top. Liaoning simply placed Chinese equivalents onto the same holes and mounts, and the Shandong inherits the same basic layout but modified the direction of the PARs and placed the Type 346A of the Type 052D on it. Carrier #3 is likely to use the radars off the Type 055.
SPY-4 on the Gerald Ford is a go, but the next carriers are switching to EASR or SPY-6.
In addition to acquiring and tracking targets all over the sky, the carrier also shares the radar sensor data with its escorts which also shares its radar sensor data back to the carrier. This creates a networked sensor bubble over the task group. The top height of the carrier enables the reach of an extended radar horizon that isn't possible with current destroyers, and for that reason the Kuznetsov design pushes the edge by adding the Fregat over the top even higher even if the ship already has four powerful fixed phase arrays already set on a high position.
That's a lot of radar for ship, even when compared to other carriers. You certainly need the radars to detect and track both friendly and threat aircraft, direct and vector friendlies to the threats. In the case of the Liaoning, it inherits the layout of the Kuznetsov which has the set of fixed PARs, plus the Fregat on top. Liaoning simply placed Chinese equivalents onto the same holes and mounts, and the Shandong inherits the same basic layout but modified the direction of the PARs and placed the Type 346A of the Type 052D on it. Carrier #3 is likely to use the radars off the Type 055.
SPY-4 on the Gerald Ford is a go, but the next carriers are switching to EASR or SPY-6.
In addition to acquiring and tracking targets all over the sky, the carrier also shares the radar sensor data with its escorts which also shares its radar sensor data back to the carrier. This creates a networked sensor bubble over the task group. The top height of the carrier enables the reach of an extended radar horizon that isn't possible with current destroyers, and for that reason the Kuznetsov design pushes the edge by adding the Fregat over the top even higher even if the ship already has four powerful fixed phase arrays already set on a high position.
