No, they make many different sizes of name plates. It doesn’t really mean anything for the test things size
nameplate is used for read, no need to make it small, same for the lock.
it’s a device for experiments, not a delicate miniature
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I believe this is not the antenna. it’s just a back plate, the “units” are just copper contacts used to weld the units. same part of the PL-15 antenna’s remain
It is a different type of antenna, but instead of guessing you could have inquired about where it was from.
These are the subarrays of a sampled aperture antenna and part of a document detailing seekers used to detect low RCS cruise missiles;
In this case, these patches are the full TR modules:
That array in particular does not have anything else on the front of it. The backplate on the PL-15 seeker piece indicates to me that it is not an ESA. Such a design does not need holes in it for wires.
This design is intended for use in a missile, yet it is simply a modern monopulse antenna array… it is not an ESA, instead resolves many of the flaws of older non ESA slotted waveguide antenna as outlined in the article. It’s a good read, I recommend it.
That being said, while the PL-15E seeker does appear to be a slotted waveguide antenna imo, it may feature changes I have not seen in any scholarly works as air to air missile seeker technology is bleeding edge technology. Many of the work-a-rounds found in one nation may not be found in another. It is possible that it is an ESA, but I doubt that is the case and most of that is based on the fact that it is an export missile.
Here is another missile with such an antenna, note there are no T/R modules on the front as stated earlier:
@WreckingAres283 Sorry for late ping, I have come to another hypothesis;
Russia and China’s latest slotted waveguide antenna look similar.
This is 9B-1103M1, the 9B-1103M2 supposedly will be AESA, but not the M1.
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AESA radar is not that limited, considering numerous Chinese export AESA radars both in military and civilian. Most sources suggests the PL-15E nerfed dual pulse rocket to single pulse.
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It is conjecture, I have provided many examples of missiles with superior antenna design to what we have seen and shown that your claims of T/R modules in front of the slots is incorrect. I just don’t see any justification for calling it an AESA immediately. At the very least, we can all agree that there is no evidence that it has an AESA in the wreckage. The images are inconclusive at best.
imo, the frame with jagged edge suggests something was there, this is not direct proof but close, and what’s closest is an AESA.
I don’t think it’s wrong, but just not enough evidence.
it’s also incorrect or not convincing to say it’s not a ESA.
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Well, that is my opinion, one I have backed with substantial reasoning and evidence.
It’s just concept with an unknown future. And it’s antenna have diameter ≈ 150mm ( compare with pen )
Yes, the 9B-1103M2 was conceptualized as a spherical antenna without gimbal
Thanks for the post. It was an interesting read and that many missiles were based on Aim-9 and Aim-7 series.
There’s exciting development on the performance of some of them.
True. AESA radars aren’t secretive. You can order them off Alibaba and dji themselves sell the T60 agriculture drone with 60kg payload and AESA radar (I’m not sure why would you need a AESA radar for agriculture work, but I’m guessing this drone will see use in more fields than just agriculture)
plus, china already exported AESA radars to Pakistan.
I have no doubt they don’t worry about export of such technology.
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it’s for obstacle avoidance, mainly avoid being knocked down by electric wires. there is also bigger loadout for topographic mapping and scanning crops.
The evidence provided doesn’t look like the plate in any way. Do u have a picture of what a wave guide looks like. I personally am going to say I can’t make the conclusions based on this but I 100% do not understand how you comprehended this as wave guide based off a bunch of holes. Also, there is a reason they are called ‘slot antenna array’ and not hole antenna array.
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I found one.
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well, new evidence, I guess this is convincing enough. as I said, just some kind of back plate, and limiting frame
and @TIGER_TANK_1 the T/R unit is even from 10 years ago, I guess they just produced too many of AESA units.
Are these pictures from the recent “event”? Also, I baidu’d the wnb7068h. Apparently there is a wnb7068h-b, on a bid website (now expired)
yes
I guess it’s not only just for missile, but other uses