APY-016K
KF-21 Boramae fire-control radar
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The APY-016K is a gallium nitride (GaN) based active electronically scanned array (AESA) fire-control radar designed by Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and Hanwha Systems for the KAI KF-21 Boramae fighter aircraft.[7][8] The early prototype was developed with 1,400 transmit/receive modules (TRM) with 14 kW of power, but by the time of the later prototype, the design had been changed to an antenna unit with about 1,100 TRMs.[9][10]
Broadern (transmit/receive module)
Hanwha Systems (processor unit)
Hanwha Systems APY-016K AESA radar in Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) in 2020 | |
| Country of origin | South Korea |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Hanwha Systems (final assembly) Broadern (transmit/receive module) |
| Designer | Agency for Defense Development (antenna unit) Hanwha Systems (processor unit) |
| Introduced | 2020[1] |
| Type | Solid-state AESA fire-control radar |
| Frequency | X-band 8–12 GHz (3.7–2.5 cm)[2][3] |
| Beamwidth | 120° (horizontal), 120° (vertical)[4] |
| Pulsewidth | <200 µs (maximum)[2] |
| Range | >200 km (120 mi)[5][6] |
| Other names | KF-X AESA Radar |
The development program was conducted from August 2016 to August 2020 and has been produced by Hanwha Systems since August 2025.[1][4]
Design
The APY-016K has air-to-air, air-to-ground detection and tracking capabilities, as well as synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) and terrain-following radar (TFR) modes,[11][12] and interleaved modes to operate two different modes simultaneously[9][13] The antenna units operated at the X-band frequency are composed to a total of 1,152 transmit/receive modules (TRM).[10]
Transmit/receive module
One transmit/receive module is assembled with one thin radiating element in the form of a square 4 millimeters wide.[10] The module system is also applied with solid-state power amplifier (SSPA), high-speed signal processing, low-noise amplifier (LNA), and 6-bit phase shift technology.[2]
- Operating frequency: X-band (8–12 GHz)
- Tx gain: >36 dB
- Rx gain: >26 dB
- Noise figure: <4.5 dB
- Input P1dB Rx: <37 dBm (maximum)
- Pulse width: <200 µs (maximum)
- Duty cycle: 15%
- Rise time: <100 µs
- Communication interface: Parallel RS-422
Radar modes
The radar system has three air-to-air, air-to-ground, and air-to-sea main modes, each of which is operated in a selective sub-mode.[9][12]
| Main mode | Submode | Operational interleaved mode | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air-to-air | Search while track (SWT) | SAR/TFR | |
| High priority precision track (HPPT) | SAR/TFR | ||
| Raid assessment (RA) | SAR/TFR | ||
| Air combat maneuvering (ACM) | TFR | ||
| Air-to-ground | Real beam ground map (RBGM) | SAR/TFR | |
| Doppler beam sharpening (DBS) | SAR/TFR | ||
| Ground moving target indication (GMTI) | SAR/TFR | ||
| Ground moving target track (GMTT) | SAR/TFR | ||
| Air-to-ground ranging (AGR) | SAR/TFR | ||
| Air-to-sea | Sea surface search (SSS) | SAR/TFR | |
| Sea moving target track (SMTT) | SAR/TFR | ||
