China claims new radar penetrated toughest US jamming jet in South China Sea

This news comes six months after PLA officers onboard a Type 055 destroyer were honored as a “role model of the times” for their actions against a U.S. aircraft carrier fleet. Chinese media showed footage of two U.S. jets buzzing the Nanchang, one widely believed to be an EA-18G “Growler.”

Videos released by China show that the EA-18G may have adopted a combat mode known as jamming-while-accompanying, creating a formation with other warplanes and conducting noise jamming or releasing strong signals of dense, false targets to blind the Nanchang.

However, the radar system on Nanchang continued to operate normally and locked onto the main targets of the U.S. fleet. A commander on the Nanchang later told state media that the U.S. planes and ships backed off shortly after they opened the protective covers of the vertical launching system (VLS).

U.S. losing EW-edge with China

Manufactured by Boeing, the “Growler” is an EW aircraft primarily used for electronic jamming. Based on the F/A-18 “Super Hornet,” it can be loaded with various EW systems to suppress enemy reconnaissance and communication signals in all frequency bands and all directions with high power.

It can also launch anti-radiation missiles for precise strikes against shipborne radars, making it a core combat force in the US AirSea Battle strategy. Production of the “Growler” began 20 years ago; the platform has been extensively upgraded over the years.

However, the new paper shows that all its capabilities are not foolproof.

“Cognitive intelligent radar has capabilities such as proactive environmental sensing, arbitrary transmit and receive design, intelligent processing, and resource scheduling. It can effectively counter the complex and variable electromagnetic jamming of the EA-18G,” wrote the project team led by Professor Liu Shangfu. Shangfu is a radar expert with the Naval Non-Commissioned Officer School in Bengbu, southeast China’s Anhui province.

China’s modern warships reportedly have multiple radars with different working principles and sensors. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), China has also solved the bottleneck issue in transmitting and processing massive amounts of data to help streamline integration.

According to the researchers, this combination significantly reduces the effectiveness of the Growler’s jamming against individual radars.

China’s ‘kill web’ a gamechanger

“System detection is not simply a stacking of multiple detection sensors, nor a loosely connected network, but rather a comprehensive utilization of the performance characteristics of different sensors based on actual situations, and a rational allocation and scheduling of detection resources from a tactical perspective to enhance the platform’s information control capabilities,” Liu’s team wrote.

Chinese scientists have also made breakthroughs in maintaining high-speed and reliable communication across the entire fleet in complex electromagnetic environments. To this end, the researchers explained that when an EA-18G launches an attack on a Chinese naval ship, nearby Chinese naval ships immediately counter it.

As the ships share information, a giant “kill web” is then created, with the capability to “flexibly, actively, quickly and intelligently counter the EA-18G, achieving a transformation from ‘single-resource confrontation’ to ‘systematic detection resource confrontation’”, Liu and his colleagues wrote.

With technology on its side, the Chinese navy has reversed its previous cautious style and adopted a more proactive tactic of “attacking as defense, taking multiple measures simultaneously, optimizing combinations and joining forces with other elements to counter electronic warfare aircraft,” the scientists added.