Naval Weaponry of The People's Liberation Army Navy - Combat Data Systems

Combat Data Systems

A combat data system is considered by the Chinese military as a force multiplier and another revolution of military affairs, but until the 1980s, Chinese naval vessels has yet to be equipped with such systems. The first combat data system for Chinese navy was indigenous, and subsequent systems trace their origin from Italian and French systems purchased. Three western combat data systems were known to be purchased by China, including British Racal Marine Radar CTC-1629, Italian Alenia SADOC 2, and French Thomson-CSF TAVITAC. Based on these sample, the following indigenous domestic Chinese combat systems were subsequently developed:

ZKJ-1

ZKJ-1 combat data system was the first generation combat data system developed by China, and it was a complete indigenous system which took more than 13 years to develop. Developed by a joint team of 724th Research Institute (later reorganized as Nanjing Marine Radar Research Institute 南京船舶雷达研究所) as the primary contractor, and 709th Research Institute as the secondary contractor, the system took more than a decade to complete, because there was absolutely not any outside information that can be referenced. The general designer was Mr. Qin Xuechang (秦学昌, born in 1940 in Chongming County), the future head of 724th Institute. Tests for subsystems of ZKJ-1 combat data system were completed in 1978, system test was completed the following year. Land tests against aerial targets begun in November 1979 and completed four months later, and finally in July 1980, the system was installed on board ships and completed its final tests.

The combat information center (CIC) centered around ZKJ-1 was Type 672-II, with three electronics cabinets and six display consoles, and it is also known as Poseidon-1. However, due to the technological backwardness of Chinese microelectronics industry at the time, the computational power of ZKJ-1 was not strong enough, and the speed of information processing was not fast enough for emerging threats in the 1980's. As a result, ZKJ-1 was only installed on board one of the Type 051Z ships, No. 110, subsequent ships were equipped with combat data system of foreign origin. ZKJ-1 combat data system was upgraded by adopting new electronics, including Type 911 computer developed by 709th Research Institute, and multiple distributed and ruggeddized Type 991 microprocessors, also developed by the same institute.

ZKJ-2

ZKJ-2 combat direction system, which is a very simple combat data system of British origin. This combat data system is frequently but erroneously referred by many as ZKJ-3, but in reality, it ZKJ-2 instead, because ZKJ-3 is actually the Chinese version of Italian IPN-10 combat data system first delivered to China in 1985. ZKJ-2 is based on Racal Marine Radar CTC-1629 (CTC: Command Tactical Console) combat direction system, which can simultaneously track 20 targets. However, UK had its own electrical/electronics standard, and ZKJ-2 is basically the same CTC-1629 converted to internationally accepted IEEE/ITU standard. The general designer of ZKJ-2 is Mr. Yan Junxing (严俊星), and the CIC associated with ZKJ-2 is Poseidon-3, developed by 724th Research Institute.

The other improvement of ZKJ-2 over the original Racal CTC-1629 is the it is linked to domestic Chinese fire control system (FCS), and one of the most important of these is SIASWFCS, which is the abbreviation of Shipborne Integrated Anti-Submarine (Warfare) Fire Control System (Chinese: 舰载综合反潜火控系统 Jian-zai Zong-he Fan-qian Huo-kong Xi-tong), the first kind in Chinese service. SIASWFCS links up onboard sensors and ASW weaponry, and once top priority targets are identified, SIASWFCS would be able to simultaneously engage two targets by automatically providing fire solutions from any of the following ASW weaponry: torpedo tubes, ASW rocket launcher, ASW mortar, mine laying rails, and later, ASW missiles as well. Up to two types of ASW weapons can be simultaneously used, either against the same target, or two targets independently. SIASWFCS would become a standard equipment on all Chinese warships and later models would expand capability by increasing targets can be attacked simultaneously and types of weaponry used. All future Chinese combat data systems have incorporated SIASWFCS (and its upgraded models).

ZKJ-3

ZKJ-3 combat data system is the Chinese equivalent of Alenia IPN-10 used by Italian Navy, and it is a Chinese development of SADOC 2, the export version of IPN-10 (SADOC = systema dirizione della operazioni di combattimento), developed by the same manufacturer, this export version of IPN-10 combat data system lacks the data link. SADOC 2 is capable of simultaneously tracking 200 targets, but such capability cannot be fully utilized in SADOC 2 due to lack of data link, because the maximum number of 200 can seldom be reached either because there are not enough targets within the vicinity, or the on-board sensors are not capable of tracking that many targets. Data link is critical in that it allows target information from other platforms to be transmitted and integrated to the combat data system, fully utilizing its potential. Furthermore, being able to receive additional information on targets detected by other platforms and integrated to one's own combat data system would result in extending the defense perimeter beyond the range of onboard sensors, thus greatly improving situation awareness. Such advantages did not exist for SADOC 2 combat data system due to lack of data link, and China had to come up with its own data link for SADOC 2 system. The resulting domestic Chinese system is ZKJ-3, which is essentially a SADOC 2 with indigenous domestic Chinese data link added, along with some other improvements, thus bring ZKJ-3 to the Chinese equivalent of the original IPN-10 combat data system, fully utilize its potential. Designed by the 724th Research Institute, ZKJ-3 entered service in 1988, and experience gained had helped the development of ZKJ-4 series combat data system, the Chinese version of French TAVITAC combat data system.

A derivative of ZKJ-3 designated as CCS-3 is installed on Royal Thai navy F25T class frigates. CCS-3 differs from ZKJ-3 mainly in data links: Thai ships were equipped with a data link back to shore headquarters, and after delivery, a US inter-ship data link is also incorporated. The general designer of CCS-3 is Mr. Chen Yongqing (陈永清). The CIC associated with ZKJ-3 was ECIC-1, rumored to be electrical combat information center, and its derivatives were used on later Chinese combat data systems.

ZKJ-4

ZKJ-4 combat data system is the Chinese version of French TAVITAC (Traitement Automatique et VIsualisation TACtique) combat data system. China signed a deal with Thomson-CSF in 1986 to purchase two sets of TAVITAC, and both were delivered in the following year. Reverse engineering efforts resulted in ZKJ-4 series combat data system, and at least three versions have been identified: ZKJ-4, ZKJ-4A, and ZKJ-4B. The follow-on upgrade of the original system is rumored to have domestic Chinese minicomputers replaced the original ones. As with its origin, TAVITAC, ZKJ-4 can also simultaneously tracing 800 targets. The subsequent development of ZKJ-4A/4B is reportedly adopting domestic Chinese computers and increasing the number of targets the system can simultaneously tracks. However, there are sources claim that the Chinese version of TAVITAC is ZKJ-5 while ZKJ-4 is the Chinese equivalent of Alenia IPN-20.

ZKJ-5

ZKJ-5 combat data system is the Chinese equivalent of Alenia IPN-20 used by Italian navy. The most significant improvement of IPN-20 over the original IPN-10 is that IPN-20 can be integrated into NATO Air Defense Ground Environment (NADGE). Similarly, ZKJ-5 can be integrated into Chinese land-based air defense networks so it can command/control land-based aircraft, a necessity of joint-service operations. This improvement of ZKJ-5 over earlier versions has since become a standard feature for later Chinese combat data systems. According to Chinese, ZKJ-5 is completely indigenous. There are sources claiming that the Chinese equivalent of IPN-20 is ZKJ-4 instead, and the Chinese version of TAVITAC is ZKJ-5 instead. Such claims have yet to be verified by official Chinese governmental sources.

ZKJ-6

The ZKJ-6 combat data system is the Chinese equivalent of French Thomson-CSF TAVITAC 2000, a combat data system that is also installed on Taiwanese Kang Ding class frigate. In addition to publicized Far Eastern customers such as Taiwan and Singapore, three TAVITAC 2000 were also sold to an unnamed Far Eastern customer, and it is widely rumored that this unnamed Far Eastern customer was China, but neither France nor China provides any confirmation of denial. However, such claims are doubted by skeptics, who claim that it is very difficult if not impossible to export such system from the West to China after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, despite the fact that when TAVITAC 2000 first made its public debut in 1988, China was one of the first customers showing strong interest. The primary improvement of TAVITAC 2000 over its predecessor TAVITAC is that the former utilizes LAN, with intelligent workstations replacing the dumb terminal in the latter, and hardened civilian computers replaced the specially built military computers in the latter, reducing the total cost by nearly a half.

According to the Chinese, ZKJ-6 was completely indigenous, because a foreign (unnamed, but presumably France) supplier had refused to sell similar system to China after China attempt to negotiate the purchase. The general designer of ZKJ-5 was Zhang Zihe (张子鹤), head of the 709th Research Institute of the 7th Academy of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, which was the primary contractor of ZKJ-5. Other important figures in ZKJ-5 program included program engineers Li Shuyun (李淑云) and Hu Bin (胡彬). Zhang Zihe pioneered the design of incorporating microcomputer/PC to the system, which was almost rejected when first proposed because it was the first attempt in China, but eventually the idea was accepted and proved successful. PCs/microcomputers incorporated in ZKJ-5 combat data system are the intelligence workstations to replace the dumb terminals, exactly how similar subsystems work in TAVITAC 2000.

ZKJ-7

ZKJ-7 combat data system is the Chinese equivalent of Thales TACTICO combat data system, a distributed system first revealed in 1994. ZKJ-7 was first revealed in 2001 during the public debut of a newly designed JRSCCS CIC, and is claimed by Chinese to be completely indigenous, with a mean time between failure of over 1800 hours, and a mean time to repair less than 30 minutes. ZKJ-7 is in the same category of Thales TACTICO in that both have eliminated the separate processor cabinets because all processing is done locally on operator consoles, and reportedly, both utilizes the same SPARC processor.

ZBJ-1

H/ZBJ-1 combat data system is the newest Chinese combat data system, reportedly on board Type 052C destroyer. Very little information is publicized about this combat data system, and much of its performance parameter remain unknown. The contractor of ZBJ-1 is reportedly to be the 704th Research Institute. It is reported that ZBJ-1 is also used on Type 052D destroyer.