Starlink radiation makes stealth target glow on Chinese radar

A team of Chinese scientists have developed a groundbreaking method for detecting stealth objects on radar

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Chinese scientists have used the network of Starlink satellites to detect a stealth target on radar. Pictured is a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites. Photo: SpaceX via AP

Published: 8:00pm, 13 Sep 2024

An unprecedented radar experiment conducted by Chinese scientists in the South China Sea could change the game of future warfare.

Taking a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone – about the size of a bird and with a radar cross-section comparable to that of a stealth fighter – the team launched it off the coast of Guangdong.

The ground-based radar did not sent out any radio waves to produce an echo, but the target appeared on screen. This was because the drone was illuminated by electromagnetic radiations emitted by a Starlink satellite flying over the Philippines, according to the scientists.

No other country has demonstrated this capability before.

Stealth aircraft, such as America’s F-22, reduce electromagnetic wave reflection through geometric shapes and absorbing coatings to cheat radars.

However, if a radar station can make use of the Starlink satellite signals – which are strong and almost everywhere – its detection capabilities could be “unaffected by the target’s three-dimensional shape and surface material”, wrote the research team led by Professor Yi Jianxin, with the school of electronic information at Wuhan University, in a paper published on August 26 in the Journal of Signal Processing.