Dyura radar

Dyura is a family of multi-function sector search and fire-control radars produced in Menghe by Samsan Defense. It includes the long-range Dyura-D, the medium-range Dyura-J, and a compact Dyura-S, which as of 2023 has not entered service and appears to have been cancelled. All radar assemblies in the family use the same set of modular I-band antenna units, assembling them into active electronically scanned arrays of varying sizes. Because the AESA configuration allows smart processing and multiple beamforming, it is possible for a single array to simultaneously illuminate multiple targets or perform multiple missions.

Development

The Dyura radar family was developed by Samsan as part of an MoND requirement for a new destroyer class. The basic requirements called for a trainable illumination radar combining the range of the STIR 2.4 HP with the multiple beamforming capability of the CPAR-X single director recently licensed for the Chunchŏn-class frigates. Parallel development work on the YDG-67 missile also justified an extension of the desired maximum tracking and illumination ranges.

Originally, the high-power Dyura-D model was intended to have ballistic missile defense capability, as part of the Insŏng-class destroyers' BMD role. This requirement was dropped in late 2014, when the MoND fully removed ballistic missile defense from the Insŏng class's desired role set. Some sources speculate that the Dyura-D antenna can restore ballistic missile tracking capability through a software update, but this is not confirmed, and current (2023) brochure materials by Samsan do not list ballistic missile defense among its roles.

Operation

All radars in the Dyura family are based on a common set of active electronically scanned array technologies, which can be scaled to meet a varying set of requirements. This scalability is accomplished using antenna modules measuring 30cm wide by 50cm tall, a concept borrowed from the AN/SPY-6 when Menghe and Dayashina were exchanging information on its development.

By exploiting AESA operating principles, the Dyura radar is able to perform a wider array of functions than earlier fire control radars. A single antenna is also able to perform multiple missions simultaneously, at the cost of splitting power between multiple beams and thus reducing output. Officially confirmed missions of the Dyura radar system include:

• Volumetric air search across a 120-degree sector;
• Focused air search within an assigned bearing range;
• Missile guidance for semi-active radar homing missiles;
• Fire control for gun and autocannon fire against airborne targets;
• Fire control and shell correction for naval gunfire against surface targets;
• Radar jamming over a wide area; and
• Focused jamming of a specific target or targets.

The focused air search mode means that even if a Dyura radar unit receives only approximate target coordinates, or even an approximate target bearing, from another sensor or platform, it is able to perform a focused search of those coordinates. This is useful for the following capabilities:

• Acquiring targets which another platform detected, using information transferred via datalink.
• Confirming, at higher resolution, a target picked up by a lower-frequency shipboard radar.
• Verifying and tracking stealthy or low-RCS targets with weak returns on other sensors.
• Dismissing false contacts generated by other sensors.
• Generating range and velocity data for contacts detected by passive sensors, such as radar antennas in passive mode, ESM antennas, and IRST sensors like the Menghean Navy's Hongmoja.

By combining focused air search with sidelobe cancellation and other electronic counter-countermeasures, the Dyura antenna is able to generate detailed tracking information on a single contact or group of contacts within a selected narrow band, without alerting any hostile radar antennas more than a few degrees off the centerline of the search bearing. This is useful when operating under conditions of partial radio and radar silence, when a ship's only sources of target tracking information may be passive sensors and target tracks transferred via datalink from an airborne early warning platform.

Variants

Dyura-D

This is the largest type of Dyura illuminator currently in service, with 24 antenna modules. Menghean state sources claim that it is able to track and illuminate a Rafale-sized target beyond the maximum range of the YDG-67 missile, implying a distance of at least 360 kilometers and possibly much more.

Dyura-J

This is the medium antenna size, with 11 antenna modules.

Used on

• Insŏng-class destroyer (Dyura-D)
• Chŏngsŏng-class frigate (Dyura-D)