China Says It's Building a "Ghost Imaging" Satellite to Detect Stealth Jets

On the heels of its claimed stealth busting 'Quantum Radar" China is claiming to be developing a satellite that it says will be able to detect stealth aircraft in flight. The camera would use quantum entanglement to generate an image of the aircraft.

So I watched the video trying to explain how this works and lets face it its way beyond my comprehension or ability to remotely understand it. But as the article point out there are quite a few limitations the least of which is the USN's ability to knock those satellites out of the sky as demonstrated in Operation Burnt Frost.

Also, there have been numerous anti stealth claims over the years from thermal imaging to using cell phone tower signals so perhaps this is simply Russian style vaporware?

www.thedrive.com...

well if china is making one the U.S. probably already has one because china hasn`t invented anything new since gunpowder,they stole the technology for anti stealth satellites from the U.S.

why does china even want to get rid of the U.S. we buy every piece of crap they make and we borrow the money to buy that crap that they make from them, they are in a win-win situation. They don`t want to get rid of the U.S. they just want to make more Chinese made crap faster and cheaper so that americans will more of it and pay more for it so they can get richer. without stupid americans buying their poorly made crap the Chinese would be out of business.

misty

a reply to: bluechevytree

Don't kid yourself..never underestimate, China has been working hard on quantum computing.

All radar is "quantum radar" since it all uses photons and "stealth technology" does not equate with invisibility.

I think a lot of this "China is building" is for domestic consumption and to keep the message going that the one-party dictatorship is driving China to new heights of technological and national/cultural mastery. The "for domestic consumption" propaganda is then picked up and reported as fact outside of China.

originally posted by: Bfirez
misty

Yes but as far as we know, that was a one off. Plus in order to detect the satellite would also have to broadcast something so that could negate its stealth

If it was of any serious use, we wouldn't need AWACS.

originally posted by: vonclod
a reply to: bluechevytree

Don't kid yourself..never underestimate, China has been working hard on quantum computing.

So has the US and they have made some breakthroughs.

a reply to: FredT

like 15 years late, but cool to see them catching up

quantum entanglement

wat

Oh look, stealth is obsolete. Again.

originally posted by: FredT
So I watched the video trying to explain how this works and lets face it its way beyond my comprehension or ability to remotely understand it.

I once heard a physicist say that there's only a handful of people on the planet that fully understand quantum entanglement. Maybe China is planning to use that to their advantage to bluff us. If none of our people can figure out exactly how this satellite works, they may not be able to definitely say it doesn't work either. It'll keep us busy for years wasting money and manpower trying to figure out a way around it, and having to take their possession of the technology into account strategically, all based on a red herring.

originally posted by: Phage
All radar is "quantum radar" since it all uses photons

True enough but not all radar uses quantum entanglement. That's the context in which they're calling it "quantum radar". They just removed a word because "quantum entanglement radar" is too cumbersome probably. Arguably less accurate too, but the article isn't in an academic publication. To layman readers, the distinction is meaningless.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Oh look, stealth is obsolete. Again.

Yeah thats what I was thinking too. Its vaporware until proven otherwise

a reply to: Arnie123

Of course, I'm sure they are..my point is do not underestimate an advesary.

This is 2 years old already. Make of it what you will.

Stealth is far from obsolete as Zaph correct points out, neither is it in any form..invisibility.

EVERY platform has outputs and creates disturbance, whether it's heat (friction), radar, IR, audio and of course reflecting visible wavelengths (means we can see it), disturbances include,magnetic disturbance, air pressure, temperature, audio

Many people think stealth platforms simply fly around being 'stealthy' doing what other aircraft do, utter rubbish, flight envelopes are tightly restricted, climb rates, tight turns, banking etc ALL compromise the platforms multi spectrum visibility.

There are numerous ways to detect these platforms, in fact some very simple, the trick is detecting them with enough precision to get an effective firing solution to down the platform

There are some interesting ideas for ground base stealth target acquisition, using L or S band radar to cue combined IR/Optical sensors which can achieve weapons lock on stealth aircraft - ironically of course, the bigger the stealth aircraft the easier it is to do away with tailplanes / canards etc which are the bugbear of any RCS aircraft.

However these systems are a few years away yet, audio corridor sensors have been tested in various parts of the UK to test the viability of detecting low flying LO platforms (with some success) of course though as the range of standoff munitions increases, the difficulty of stopping those increases massively.

I've seen some truly weird and wonderful ideas to protect SAM launch sites, from explosive splinter munitions to detonate or fracture incoming weapons to multi level graphene weaved domes (with variable launch openings ) to incredibly high pressure water and air cannons to disrupt the final few hundred metres of a weapons trajectory.

In the end it's a huge game of chess, sooner rather than later, any platform attempting to disable high threat weapons like S-400 etc will certainly be unmanned, fully AI driven stealth missiles are the order of the future, human pilots are too valuable for the task.

a reply to: GrumpyBollocks

"Stealth is far from obsolete as Zaph correct points out, neither is it in any form..invisibility. "

However electronics outpace stealth. Sensor fusion is stealth's worst enemy. www.deagel.com... "-According to the report, the SLC-7 has a tracking distance of more than 300 kilometers for ballistic target with a radar reflection area of 0.01 square meters.
It also has a detection range of more than 450 kilometers for a target of 0.05 square meters and a maximum tracking height of more than 30,000 meters. Moreover, the radar is highly mobile and can move to new grounds within 15 minutes, said the report.
According to the report, the No.14 Research Institute also launched the YLC-8B mid-and long-range three-coordinate surveillance radar in recent years.
That radar can be maneuvered by road, sea and railway and can be set up by six crew members within 30 minutes. The radar can detect and track traditional multitasking aircrafts at a distance up to 550 kilometers and the tracking distance of targets with a low detect ability is about 350 kilometers, the report showed."

I am assuming the YLC-8B is referring itself of tracking .01m2 targets at 350km.... hmmmm .01m2 tracking at more than 300km. In all due respect that cant be done alone with X-band it also says its a UHF radar. But UHF cant track only fire control radars like X-band can do that what gives???? Here is another more detail explanation.
aviationweek.com... "-It retains the basic advantages of VHF: NNIRT says that the Chinese DF-15 short-range ballistic missile has a 0.002 m2 RCS in X-band, but is 0.6 m2 in VHF. The principle behind Nebo-M is the fusion of data from the three radars to create a robust kill chain. The VHF system performs initial detection and cues the UHF radar, which in turn can cue the X-band RLM-S. The Orientir system provides accurate azimuth data (which Glonass/GPS on its own does not support), and makes it possible for the three signals to be combined into a single target picture."

In other words this turned .002 into 300 times the size it is to .6m2......You want to know what current aircraft are specifically designed to hide from???? Answer: X-band Global security states RCS of F-35 .005 and F-22 .0001 but we all know that is Bull# because the F-35 is smaller and has 10% more stealth composites than the F-22 hence US General Hostage stating F-35 as more stealthier and using same exact material..... www.deagel.com... The Nebo-M is a way more powerful than China's radar in statistics not involving RCS but the regular DF-15 missile has a 600km range what we do not know is the range it was tested and fired for the Nebo-M to detect. Rather if .005m2 is the right target size or not that still would not make much of a difference in getting any closer in taking out China's radar before a SAM notices you.

ROFAR is another story along with ground radars exchanging information.

originally posted by: Phage
All radar is "quantum radar" since it all uses photons and "stealth technology" does not equate with invisibility.

Well electrons instead of photons.

I'm curious why you don't find much chatter about bistatic radar. The technology to phase lock different radar sites with fiber optics is decades old. It is difficult to maintain a small RCS from multiple directions.