China’s electronic war gadget turns small drone into flying stadium on radar

While China’s sixth-generation fighter jets pierce the skies in their boundary-pushing stealth coating, a team of scientists has been breaking new ground in electronic warfare technology from the opposite direction.

Instead of a stealth approach, the Chinese researchers aim to fool radar operators into thinking that a radar reflector – roughly the size of an iPad tablet – is an unidentified flying object (UFO) as big as a sports stadium.

The effect – similar to a giant flying saucer suddenly materialising in mid-air – would be reminiscent of a scene from a science fiction film but it is achievable, according to a peer-reviewed paper published on January 8.

The paper, which appeared in the Chinese-language journal Radar Science and Technology, said the researchers created a radar cross-section (RCS) – the echo produced by a target’s power output – for the tablet measuring 5,240 square metres (56,400 sq ft).

The team, led by Chen Qiang, associate researcher at the National University of Defence Technology’s school of electronic science and technology, said the effect was achieved with “unprecedented efficiency”.

By powering up the radar reflector as it was carried by a drone, the researchers found it could “significantly increase RCS to mask the characteristics of real targets, effectively achieving tactical goals such as anti-reconnaissance and anti-attack”.