China’s radar technology has come a long way. From makeshift systems built on borrowed equipment to advanced phased-array and airborne pulse-Doppler radars, the country’s progress has been fast and strategic. Few individuals shaped that transformation more than Ben De, the radar engineer widely recognized as the founder of China’s airborne fire-control radar program.
From Barbed Wire to Blueprint: China’s First Radar
When the People’s Republic of China was founded, the radar industry barely existed. During the Korean War, all radar units were refurbished foreign models.
In 1954, a breakthrough came: the Type 314A medium-range warning radar, China’s first domestically designed system. Engineers at the 14th Research Institute had no technical drawings or access to foreign samples—only the chance to observe a foreign radar from behind barbed wire. Using telescopes, they studied every detail and reverse-engineered the design from scratch. It was an audacious start that marked China’s entry into radar manufacturing.
The 7010 Project: A Hidden Giant Beneath the Mountain
In 1964, as China sought early warning and missile defense capability, Ben De was tasked with developing a large phased-array radar, a technology then mastered only by the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The project, code-named 7010, had to be completed in record time. Engineers worked inside a remote mountain bunker, using construction materials equivalent to 500 rail cars. By October 1970, the system was operational—making China the third country to field a large-scale phased-array radar for strategic defense.
This achievement laid the groundwork for China’s modern long-range early-warning network.
Fire-Control Breakthrough: The “Eyes” of the Jet Fighter
By the 1970s, the nature of air combat had changed. Modern fighters required onboard radar that could detect and track targets at long range and against ground clutter. Developing such a pulse-Doppler fire-control radar was a massive challenge for a country still catching up technologically.
Ben De’s team spent a decade overcoming those challenges—miniaturizing the radar to fit inside a jet’s nose cone, keeping the system under 100 kilograms, and achieving “look-down” detection against interference millions of times stronger than the target signal.
By 1988, the prototype was ready. In test flights, the radar exceeded expectations, detecting targets more than 100 kilometers away—twice its design range. Test pilots joked that the system “must be on stimulants—it just keeps seeing farther.”
The technology went on to equip multiple generations of Chinese fighters, including the J-10, J-11, J-15, and J-20, giving the PLA Air Force its true “eyes of fire.”
Catching Drones: The Rise of the “Spider Web” Radar
Modern drones are small, slow, and stealthy—often invisible to conventional radar. Ben’s team responded with the “Spider Web” system, a compact phased-array radar capable of detecting low, slow, and small UAVs.
Rather than physical nets, it casts an invisible web of electromagnetic waves, combining pulse-Doppler precision with advanced signal processing to identify weak echoes from low-RCS targets. It reflects a new era of radar design—one shaped by irregular warfare and drone threats.
The Human Side of Innovation
Ben De’s story also carries personal sacrifice. During the 7010 program, he spent months deep in mountain labs, unable to return home even when his wife was expecting their second child. Decades later, she recalled it calmly: “Work always came first—that’s who he is.”
Ben himself grew up poor, walking miles barefoot to school. “I knew knowledge could change my fate,” he said. Six decades later, that same belief helped him give his country the ability to see across thousands of kilometers.
A Nation That Can See
From reverse-engineering through a telescope to building stealth-detecting phased arrays, China’s radar story mirrors its broader defense rise—rapid, determined, and technically ambitious.
As Ben De summed up with quiet pride:
“Every radar the world has, China has too.”
