Due to the competition between the Chinese and US air forces, the United States announced for the first time that it would replace all the radars of the F35 with the latest APG-85 or F-35A. Each new radar means a new upgrade, and the F-35's Joint Program Office says the new radar will be compatible with all F-35 models.
At present, the TR3 F-35A has encountered some technical problems, which means that it will take a long time for the APG-85 to be upgraded, but it also indicates that the main battlefield between China and the United States in the future will be in the field of gallium nitride.
The F-35 was originally equipped with an APG-81 radar, which itself is an active phased array with very powerful performance. Yes, the difference between the Type 85 radar is **? In fact, the biggest change is the use of GAN technology for the TR group and GAAS technology for the APG-81 radar. Of course, the current refrigeration performance and power of the F-35 Block 3 engine are still up for debate.
As we have said before, the best way to improve the effectiveness ratio of fighters is to improve radar and missiles, and improving radar performance is fundamental. The materials used in the active phased array antenna have gone through many iterations and have gone through four generations so far. The third-generation material is GaN, and the *** material is probably gallium oxide.
The U.S. F22 and F35 use GaAs technology, while the GAN is a recent development and is used by the F-35 and China's main fighter jets.
GaN chips have more than 10 times the energy density of GaAs, and once applied to aircraft, they can make radars smaller and have a larger detection range. For example, the newly developed "Patriot" radar in the United States can increase the search range by five times if gallium nitride elements are used, and the detection range can be increased by 1 by 1 if the gallium nitride element is used7 times.
Recently, China released the 20 and 2051 back trimmed versions of the J-31, and some sharp-eyed netizens noticed that their noses seemed to be smaller. In fact, there is good reason to believe that the GAN radar has already been adopted, which indicates that all Chinese fighters will be replaced with GAN radars in the near future. In 2020, a large-scale project that was too advanced and inconvenient to disclose was developed by the 14th Institute of CLP, which won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and was speculated by the West to be a gallium nitride radar.
The question is, what will happen to China's main fighter jets in the future when they are equipped with gallium nitride radars?
For example, the J-20, J-16, and J-11 B can reconnoiter targets within a range of 500 km, and their situational awareness will be unprecedentedly enhanced. For non-** fighters, equipping GaN radar for active reconnaissance will play a greater role in the implementation of ground air combat.
Second, the fighters' communication bandwidth, multiple functions, anti-jamming, and electronic warfare level have been improved. In air combat, fighters play an important role, and under complex electronic warfare conditions, fighters equipped with GAN-based radars are more likely to gain the initiative in electromagnetic control.
Third, the power of ultra-long-range air-to-air missiles will be greatly enhanced. China has been equipped with ultra-long-range ballistic missiles of more than 300 kilometers, mainly used to strike early warning aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft, tankers, bombers, etc., and must be equipped with gallium nitride radar in order to cooperate with missiles very flexibly, otherwise it must rely on early warning aircraft.
Fourth, reduce the weight of the body. For a fighter, reducing weight is like a piece of gold. The Su-27 radar originally weighed a ton, and today the GaN radar has become very light, which means that the J-20's maneuverability, cruising time, fuel economy, and so on will be beneficial.
In other words, after being equipped with gallium nitride radar, an old fighter will become more powerful. Therefore, China's next step is likely to be to make the GAN radar like a cabbage, wait until the J-20 and FC-31 are used, and then replace the J-16 and J-10 C with the J-10C.