Chinese naval scientists claim new research shows military radar from other countries can be used to locate and track ships

To an outsider, these signals appear to be a complex web, and extracting valuable information from them is like finding a needle in a haystack.

But Song’s team achieved an unprecedented feat by successfully detecting ships entering and leaving the port using potentially unfriendly radar signals.

“Our system works well against slow-moving targets at sea,” the team said. “We can easily track ships.”

For a country like China, which has an extensive radar network, this may not be a game-changer. But for smaller countries and militaries whose radars are destroyed or simply out of reach, this could be a lifesaver. By hijacking enemy signals, you can gain a decisive advantage with little effort.

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In Yantai, scientists chose a residential building as the base for their experiments. A receiving antenna the size of a drying rack was ready by the window. Connected to this antenna was an electromagnetic wave analyzer about the size of a microwave oven, which processed the received signals. These signals were input into a regular laptop for further analysis.

Setup was easy and all equipment was easily available and could be carried in the trunk of the car.

In addition, we collected critical information about the ship’s direction and speed, which would be invaluable against potential drone or missile attacks.

This meant that in real-world scenarios, their system could utilize signals from military platforms of any country.

Chinese scientists share design of new electronic warfare weapon with world

In their paper, Song and colleagues shared a powerful algorithm and explained how they used it to back-derive military radar operating parameters from the received spectrum.

However, real-world applications presented their own hurdles. For example, the direct signal from the radar to the receiving antenna was significantly stronger than the signal reflected from the ship’s hull, often masking ship-specific characteristics. Both signals are important for accurate positioning. Disentangling them also required a unique processing approach not typically found at standard radar stations.

Song’s team meticulously details these processes and considerations in their paper, along with insights into data compression and storage techniques that improve the speed and accuracy of computer analysis.