Chinese ships and radar boost navies of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
- Anti-stealth radar seen at Pakistan’s airbase, while China builds ships for its navy, refurbishes others in Bangladeshi colours and gifts vessel to Sri Lanka
- Latest supplies come amid suggestions that China is encircling India by developing relationships with its neighbours
Jane’s Defence Weekly, a magazine reporting on military and corporate affairs, said it had identified Chinese-made JY-27A counter-very-low-observable radar from satellite images of Pakistan’s Mianwali Air Base, captured on August 29.
This 3D long-range radar is capable of detecting stealth aircraft such as the F-22 from 500km (310 miles) away with its active phased array antenna using very high frequency waves. Either installed on land or mobile on vehicles, it is jamming-resistant and could also guide surface-to-air missiles to strike incoming aircraft.
The radar is believed to have arrived at the airbase in northeast Pakistan between June 5 and August 29, and was not fully operational as of September 2, according to Jane’s.
Neither Pakistan nor China made the sale of the JY-27A public, but earlier this month representatives of both sides attended a ceremony at a Shanghai shipyard to mark the steel-cutting of a second batch of Type 054A guided-missile frigates.