China’s new radar system can ‘detect stealth jets’

China claims it has developed a radar system that can detect stealth fighter jets at long range and is protected against anti-radiation missiles.

A land-based version of the new high-frequency surface wave radar could "detect naval and aerial hostile objects from hundreds of kilometres away", its creator Liu Yongtan said, according to the South China Morning Post.

Surface waves travel along the spherical surface of the earth, rather than through the sky like microwaves.

Stealth fighters are protected against detection by microwave radars, but not surface waves.

Chinese state media, including government mouthpiece the Global Times, also said the new system was warded against anti-radiation missiles, which track the source of electromagnetic waves.

Mr Liu claimed the missiles would need larger antennae to track surface waves as the "beams" were too wide.

Previous hindrances to the development of a surface-wave radar include signal loss and noise interference.

But Chinese military commentator Shi Lao said he believed Mr Liu's technology could replace early-warning aircraft as a coastal protection warning system.

"They can be deployed relatively quickly with high mobility if they are mounted on vehicles, and may be loaded onto warships in the future," he said.