Type 346 Radar

Type 346 radar is a highly digitized, multi-function, dual-band (S and C bands) naval active phased array radar (APAR) installed on Type 052C destroyers and Type 052D destroyers of the PLAN. The radar is named as the Star of the Sea (Hai-Zhi-Xing, 海之星) by its developer and it is one of the two competitors for PLAN’s SAPARS (Shipborne Active Phased Array Radar System) project/program. Due to its secrecy and lack of information, Type 346 radar has been frequently but erroneously confused with a Chinese fire control radar Type 348, and mistakenly identified as Type 348 by many sources. Furthermore, it is also frequently confused with and misidentified as Sea Lion series C-band phased array radars developed by another competing design house as a direct competitor of Star of the Sea. Another frequent but erroneous claim about Type 346 radar due to the same secrecy is that it is a Chinese copy of Ukrainian C-band APAR, but in reality, it is completely indigenously developed by China, and it was only after Star of the Sea dual band APAR had already received state certification was the Ukrainian APAR delivered to China in 2004. Several models in the Type 346 series have been developed. When Star of the Sea was selected as the winner of SAPARS and accepted into Chinese service, it received the Chinese naval designation for the entire radar system as H/LJG-346 or Type 346 for short. The NATO reporting name for Type 346 radar is Dragon Eye.

The development of Type 346 radar is marred with fierce competition between the two contenders, the 14th Research Institute in Nanjing, also known as Nanjing Institute of Electronic Technology (南京电子技术研究所) of China Electronics Technology Group (CETG), or 14th Institute for short, and the 23rd Research Institute of the 2nd Research Academy of CASIC, or 23rd Institute for short. When the program begun in the late 1980s in the era where military spending is drastically reduced, the program was extremely lucrative in that not only winner would be rewarded 210 million ¥ developmental fund, but another additional 20 million ¥ for infrastructure investment. As a result, the bid between the two had expanded beyond the normal technical competition, but ended up in political struggle that involved the top brass of the Chinese leadership, which caused years of delay and almost killed the program.

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