[Military Sub-Plane] Author: Golden Bomber
According to the relevant reports of the Ukrainian military media Defense Express, the Ukrainian military intelligence department in recent operations, confirmed that the Russian field air defense forces are equipped with some small drone detection radar from China.
11th Russian Army
According to relevant information revealed on the pro-Ukrainian "Telegraph" website, the Russian military unit equipped with Chinese radar is the 22nd Air Defense Missile Corps of the 11th Army, which belongs to the Northern Fleet. After the start of the war in 2022, the division headquarters were deployed on the Crimea and part of the Donbas front, the main task is to protect the security of the critical infrastructure of Russia in the southern region of Uzbekistan. In previous battles, they repeatedly intercepted the missiles and drones launched by the Ukrainian army, but the success rate is not very high. The Russian radar is rough, poor performance, there are not many ways for the drone to fly, and the high-value radar itself is often unable to expose the deployment under the
Recently, however, Ukrainian military intelligence discovered that the regiment's air defense interception success rate suddenly soared sharply. According to data from the Ukrainian Army Intelligence Center, in recent battles, the regiment has intercepted a large number of FPV suicide drones launched by it at least three times with a very high success rate. About 70% of the FPVs have not entered the war zone. The number was as high as more than 500. Since the above data comes from Ukraine, this is definitely not the boasting of the Russian army. Based on the game logic of the war, the Ukrainian intelligence agency launched a more detailed exploration campaign and finally locked that these radars were not made in Russia, but from China.
▲ Foreign media reported that Russian field air defense forces purchased 6 sets of Chinese FSTH-LD02 radars
The two radars, respectively FSTH-LD02 and FSTH-LD03, are products from China Zhejiang Wind Double Technology Co., Ltd., belonging to the shelf commodity on its small all-weather civilian radar security products. According to the public information of Wind Double Technology Co., the 02/03 radar is divided into low-end and high-end versions, the detection range varies from 5 kilometers to 20 kilometers. The products are mainly used to detect low-slow drone targets. Their design architecture is advanced, using a large number of cutting-edge technology, especially using source phase-controlled antennas and AI assisted for target identification.
The radar weighs about 50 to 100 kilograms, can be carried by multiple military personnel, can also be rapidly deployed by lightweight vehicles, suitable for anti-drone environments. Its price is very low, the price sold publicly on e-commerce platforms is only about $22,000 to $23,000. Its positioning is "civil security equipment", but the actual performance has a paramilitary grade, resolution not less than many military products, and even detailed to distinguish between drones and bird groups. Their performance far exceeds the same type of Russian domestic products, and the advantage in terms of price is even more incomparable, in the Russian military selection they can say that it is not surprising at all.
Part of radar performance data of Wind双科技有限公司
The outstanding performance of Chinese civilian radar on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield made the Ukrainian army very angry, so it tried to accuse this as key evidence of China's military assistance to Russia. In fact, because these anti-drone radars are typical civilian products and can be bought by anyone, they are not included in the military control list. As long as users pay for it, enterprises can legally sell it. As for what it is used for, whether it is reverse engineering, teaching aids, or front-line combat, it has nothing to do with China and Chinese enterprises. It is not difficult to guess that there should be a large group of people in the Russian army who brush Chinese civilian products online every day. As long as they feel useful, they will buy them and give them a bold try. This is how Fengshuang Technology's radar should enter Russia.
Some people are surprised. It's not like Russia does not have air defense radar. Even the field air defense forces in the Soviet era had one of the best radar and electronic jamming equipment. Why did it fall like this? It can only be said that today is different from the past.
▲96L6E
As an important air defense force in Russia, the 22nd Air Defense Missile Regiment of the 11th Army of the Russian Northern Fleet is equipped with at least two battalions of S-400 air defense missiles, one battalion of S-300PMU-2, and 8 to 12 Pantsir-S1s. But these equipment are not aimed at low, small and slow targets at all. In particular, the performance of the S-400's 96L6E radar is indeed very advanced, with a detection range even reaching 300 kilometers, and it has the ability to detect targets below 40 kilometers altitude.
But the above data is based on typical fighter targets, FPV drones because of the radar reflection area is too small, in 96L6E will be considered as a bird-like wave directly filtered. In the previous battle, the 96L6E radar has been destroyed several times, and the 22nd air defense missile regiment also 1 set of radar was destroyed under the strike of the Ukrainian army "Himas".
▲FSTH-LD02/03
Although the Russia-Ukraine war lasted for more than three years, the Russian army initially did not expect the power of small drones, nor did it have the ability to rapidly develop and produce them on a large scale after the war. Although China's FSTH-LD03 is a civilian product, it uses the X-band of 8 to 12GHz and has a wavelength of only 3.75 to 2.5 cm. It can detect more than 10 kilometers for small targets with a radar reflection cross-section area of 0.01㎡. The situation is similar for FSTH-LD02. The operating band is Ku band, and the detection error at a distance of 10 kilometers is only about 5 meters. Moreover, in a large-scale war of attrition, compared with large radars that often cost tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, the price of these small civilian radars is almost negligible, and you will not feel sorry for the loss. This is the key reason why China's civilian radars are widely used by Russian field forces.