It's rare for China to so publicly show such leakages since we know they carefully control what is said. Therefore there's a political element in allowing these "news" to be shown. Is it to warn the US and force them to upgrade their military strategies and force increased military spending, hindering public improvements and straining the budget? Is it true or made up for these purposes? If the former, does it hint at even greater abilities possessed by China because they seldom show stuff that isn't already years old while newer stuff's already out or close to finalised.
Like the recent Indian media claims of Su-30 MKI managing to spot and presumably track and target (since apparently J-20 will be easy to handle by what IAF already has), how on earth did these Chinese operators determine the tracked target is indeed a F-22 and wasn't wearing LL or had its RCS enhanced by some other means? All of these claims feel a bit iffy. Even so, it is the first time Chinese sources have leaked any serious military news with grand claims of this caliber. In the past, what was claimed has always been true wrt Chinese sources (at least I don't remember a single one that was sensationalised nonsense like the many Indian reports in recent years). Perhaps they are growing a bit confident and have more tricks up their sleeves.
This came from the leading scientist of the state-owned electronics group (CETC), in a powerpoint presentation delivered in a good (not best) Chinese university, with dates with regard to when the radar
s passed state assessment, etc. Someone among the audience (a student if I have to guess) probably took the photos and they ended up on Chinese military forums, not initially as any piece of news.
The Indian claim is from what I think an ad-hoc interview:
and an Indian general and commander claimed they did not need to go through all the R&D and instead just utilized the yet-to-be-upgraded Su-30MKI radar from the late 1990s/early 2000s!
The Indian story makes me wonder why exactly did the Chinese (allegedly) have to go through all the hard work. The guy listed difficulties, books and other works as references, the whole deal to present his team's work. It just seems near-comical in comparison when you add up both accounts.
LL probably won't be a huge factor considering what they claimed to have used was a meterwave radar, or so I've heard. My electromagnetics is rusty. I do wonder how they confirmed what they tracked was an F-22 though, and for that part the scientist (understandably) did not make it clear.
This not just detection, but detection and tracking. If true, that is a huge leap.
