The Chinese People's Liberation Army today uses more than 430 J-11 fighters, a modernized local version of the Russian Su-27, used mainly for air superiority missions, of which more than 300 are J-11B variants, for which a large part of the Russian electrical components have been replaced by local components, and which has a modern multi-screen cockpit. According to Chinese media, a new variant of the device, equipped with an AESA radar, and not PESA as previously, was observed on an air base in the country, leading to anticipation of a modernization of the fleet towards this new radar.
Although powerful, passive electronically scanned antenna (PESA) radars only have a single source of microwaves, distributed simultaneously to all transceivers. An Active Electronically Scanned Antenna radar, or AESA, has a separate source for each of the transmit/receive modules, allowing the radar to work permanently on the most effective frequency with respect to the target, while simultaneously processing several targets of different types, which present themselves at different angles, altitudes, speeds and distances. This type of radar is suitable for the use of modern missiles, particularly long-range missiles.
The Chinese air forces, like the naval air forces, are already using aircraft equipped with AESA radars, such as the 5th generation heavy fighter J-20, the J-10C light fighter, the J-16 multi-purpose fighter et the J-15 multipurpose carrier-based fighter, making China the second user of AESA technology digitally speaking for its combat aircraft, after the United States. But this will be the first time that an old generation aircraft will be modernized to receive this new type of radar, which will significantly increase the overall performance of the country's air forces. In addition, the devices thus modernized will be able to implement the new long-range missiles in the Chinese arsenal, like the PL15 and the PL21.