Radar expert and China’s father of airborne early warning and control system Wang Xiaomo dies aged 84

Name: Mighty Dragon: China’s upgraded J-20 stealth fighter
Uploaded: 2023-03-08T08:00:11.000Z
Duration: 1 min 56 s
Description: Mighty Dragon: China’s upgraded J-20 stealth fighter

Wang helped produce advanced radars and established mature processes to develop Awacs aircraft

In 2013, when being given China’s Highest Science and Technology Award, he said: ‘I’ve done one thing all my life … I am just an ordinary researcher’

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Radar expert Wang Xiaomo, who died in Beijing on Monday aged 84. Photo: Weibo

Zhang Tongin Beijing

Published: 4:00pm, 8 Mar 2023Updated: 9:26pm, 8 Mar 2023

Wang Xiaomo, a radar expert known as the father of China’s airborne early warning system, died in Beijing on Monday, according to a statement by the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

He was 84 and died from an unnamed disease, the statement added.

During his research career spanning more than 50 years, Wang helped develop many advanced radars. He proposed the technology development road map for the airborne warning and control system (Awacs) aircraft, and established a mature process to develop them. He witnessed China’s rise to an advanced international level in this field, according to the statement from CETC, a major defence contractor.

After graduating from Beijing Institute of Technology in 1961, Wang entered a research institute under the Ministry of National Defence in Nanjing.

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In 1972, he led the development of China’s 383 radar. Compared with older radars that could gather distance and orientation data, the 383 could also determine altitude. At that time, the 383 was more accurate than the United States’ TPS-43 radar.