TheJL-10A airborneradar is a highly digitizedpulse-Doppler radar with slottedplanar array developed for thePeople's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) as a replacement for the olderType 232Hradar currently employed by the Chinese air force. Theradar is built toMIL-STD-1553 standard so it is compatible with western electronics and weaponry. Originally, theradar 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 usingsemi-active radar homingair-to-air missiles, or 4 of the 10 tracked when usingactive radar homingair-to-air missiles.
Although theradar has the terrain following and terrain avoidance capabilities, they are rarely used, instead, it is compatible with navigational pods such as the ChineseBlue 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 scannedphased array airborneradars with each scan lasts onlymilliseconds, the JL-10A is a slottedplanar arrayradar with each scan last from severalseconds to a dozenseconds 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 capturedterrain following radars from downedA-6 Intruder andGeneral Dynamics F-111 during theVietnam War.
In 2001, JL-10A achieved a 32:1 DBS (Doppler beam sharpening) capability, but it still lags behind the 48:1 DBS capability ofAN/APG-66, and it was not several years later when the JL-10A was finally upgraded with 64:1 DBS capability like that ofAN/APG-68. Around the same time, JL-10A was also upgraded with the capability to simultaneously track 15 targets and engage 6 of the 15 tracked. By 2004,SAR capability was incorporated, and inverseSAR (ISAR) capability is reportedly under development.
The radar has already been tested and successfully installed onJH-7A Flying Leopard fighter-bombers and is capable of launching a scope of weapons including theC-802anti-ship missile and theRussianKh-31. The JL-10A will be fitted on the Chinese/PakistaniFC-1s upon customer's requests.
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