World first: how Chinese plane radar tracks moving targets without breaking radio silence

‘Space-time decoupling’ allows Cessna-208 to cancel out environmental clutter and track moving vehicles with crystal clarity

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Two light aircraft were used to track the targets. Photo: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Published: 4:26pm, 6 Jun 2025Updated: 5:48pm, 6 Jun 2025

Two unassuming Cessna-208 Caravan aircraft flew in formation, separated by hundreds of metres in altitude. One emitted radar signals; the other, flying lower, remained utterly silent, passively gathering echoes.

Far ahead below, three vehicles raced across undulating terrain, dense with vegetation and scattered structures – a scene designed to hide moving targets in a storm of background clutter. Radar screens showed only snowlike noise, as traditional filtering methods struggled. Then, a technological miracle unfolded.

On May 12, China’s prestigious Journal of Radars unveiled a landmark study led by award-winning radar scientist Li Zhongyu with the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Their innovation – a “space-time decoupling two-channel clutter cancellation method” – enabled the silent Cessna to detect all three moving vehicles with crystal clarity.

As soon as the new tech activated, the screen cleared without a speck of noise, as shown by images in the paper.

Detecting moving targets with bistatic airborne radar has long been a nightmare because of clutter caused by reflections from land, sea or buildings.

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