China is close to deploying an anti-aircraft defense system that uses technology so advanced it can track even Stealth-type warplanes, Newsweek reported in its latest edition, although analysts in Taiwan dismissed the report as unrealistic.
US intelligence analysts expressed worries that the new early-warning defence system could defeat current US Air Force tactics against enemy air defenses, Newsweek reported.
"Everyone is wondering about the cost of defending Taiwan," an intelligence source told the magazine.
Current anti-aircraft defenses use radar to track incoming aircraft, but outgoing signals can be found and jammed or destroyed.
The "passive" technology that US officials believe the Chinese have detects aircraft by monitoring disruptions in commercial radio and TV signals, and are essentially undetectable, Newsweek reported.
The technology, which could detect US stealth aircraft, including the F-117 bomber and perhaps even the futuristic F-22 fighter, has so alarmed the defence community that top military and industry experts have been called to a secret meeting in December to discuss the strategic implications, the magazine said in its Dec. 6 issue that hit newsstands yesterday.
Current anti-aircraft defenses are cued by radars that detect and track incoming aircraft. But the radars are vulnerable because their signals can be jammed or missiles can be launched to ride back down the radar beams and destroy the transmitters.
Newsweek said China's new Passive Coherent Location (PCL) system tracked the signals of civilian radio and television broadcasts and picked up aircraft by analyzing the minute turbulence their flight caused in the commercial wavelengths.
Military analysts in Taiwan, however, said it was unlikely the development of PCL technology by China has been taken beyond the theoretical stage.
One expert, who asked not to be named, said there was little chance that hardware for PCL is anywhere near completion at this stage.
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