tech2 News Staff

China has developed a quantum radar to bypass stealth technologies. The high accuracy radar was tested in a real world scenario, and was able to detect a target object in the range of 100 kilometres, according to a report by Guangming Online. The quantum radar was developed and tested by the Intelligent Perception Technology Laboratory of the 14th Institute of the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), according to a report in people.cn. The CETC is a collaboration between researchers, industries and the former Chinese ministry of Information Industry.

The radar can see past stealth technologies, and even identify individual features within stealth vehicles, a benefit over conventional Radar systems. The Radar works on the basis of quantum entanglement in photons, where a pair of separated photons share the same state. Any changes in state to one photon, affects the other in a measurable way, irrespective of how far in distance the two are separated. The phenomenon was scary even to Albert Einstein, who famously proclaimed it as “spooky action at a distance”. The newly developed radar can be used from a ground station, mounted on an aircraft, or even integrated with a satellite.

China has had some recent developments in using quantum entanglement for communication purposes as well. China launched the world's first quantum communications satellite. The satellite tested communication based on quantum entanglement from space to a ground based centre. However, quantum communication in space was tested in a small shoebox sized payload by Singapore. The Galassia nano-satellite was developed by the National University of Singapore and launched by ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in December 2015.