In the research of ground wave radar, according to the relevant principles, China has carried out research work on land use and ship use respectively. In the early 1980s, Harbin Institute of Technology put forward a research plan based on the new mechanism and began to tackle key problems. After years of hard work, we have overcome a number of key technologies, and on this basis, we have carried out systematic tests.
1990, China established the first high-frequency ground wave over-the-horizon test station in Weihai, and successfully tracked the over-the-horizon targets such as ships and planes. On this basis, the test of shipborne ground wave radar was carried out, and ships hundreds of kilometers away were successfully detected, which laid a solid foundation for the use of domestic ground wave over-the-horizon radar.
Another ground wave over-the-horizon radar system in China is the OSMAR system developed by Wuhan University. The system was put into use in 1994, and the target 30 kilometers away was successfully detected. On this basis, Wuhan University developed the second generation OSMAR2000 system. The maximum detection distance of the system is increased to more than 200 kilometers, and its comprehensive performance has reached the advanced level abroad in the 1990s. On the whole, however, China's above-mentioned terrain over-the-horizon radar still lags behind Russia's HFSWR and other foreign countries in some main performances, which is reflected in the fact that the maximum detection range is closer than the latter, so it is insufficient to provide support for the Eagle Strike -62 shore-to-ship missile force, which may be the reason why China wants to import similar products from Russia.