The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) YLC-8B is a mobile, high-altitude 3D surveillance radar developed independently in China to detect a wide range of threats, including ballistic missiles and aircraft, at a range of 300km. YLC-8B is far from an anti-stealth radar Chinese X (formerly Twitter) propaganda.
The radar system, utilising analogue antennas with some digital beam steering, has been integrated onto a wheeled platform to provide mobility and is intended for deployment by the PLA in key areas. The YLC-8B radar was unveiled at the China Air Show in November 2014.
At the airshow, the 14th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) displayed two anti-ballistic missile radars, not an anti-stealth radar, including the YLC-8E high-mobility air defence warning radar and the YLC-2E S-band, 150km-range, multi-role radar.
The YLC-8B is based on the Russian Nebo series VHF radar China received in the early 1990s as part of the S-300 missile procurement agreement. It took almost 24 years for China to reverse-engineer the Nebo very high frequency (VHF) radar using domestically sourced materials. This radar is designed and built to detect high RCS (radar cross section) projectiles and jumbo jet-sized aircraft at high altitude. YLC-8B can detect targets up to 100 square meters. Anything less than 100 square meters of RCS is not detectable by radar.
The modern Western frequency-hopping AESA radar, jamming technology, and combined with stealth technology, make it harder to detect a stealth jet at 300km range using UHF, VHF, and meter-wave frequencies.
Aircraft like the EA-18G Growler can read, capture and reply back on the same frequency to the originating radar, such as YLC-8B, JY-27A and YLC-2E and introduce more radar frequencies to confuse known algorithms by any Chinese and Russian electromagnetic emitter source. That’s exactly what happened during the US operations that captured Maduro and disabled Chinese radars.
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