China Is Attempting To Mass Produce 'World-First' Quantum Radars For This One Purpose

Radar has been around since 1904, though it took time to achieve practical usage. World War II was significantly altered with the introduction of usable radar, and it has evolved considerably ever since. The next innovation in radar technology could use a unique quantum property of photons to identify objects, forming a far more detailed picture compared to traditional methods. China is working hard to produce the world's first quantum radar system, which could be capable of tracking aircraft like the stealthiest fighter jet, the American-made F-22 Raptor. 

Quantum radar systems aren't available yet, but China is moving closer to the goal. Traditional radar bounces radio waves off objects to determine their speed, size, and trajectory. Quantum radar is a different animal, using the quantum properties of light to locate distant objects in what is called quantum sensing. This radar employs the strange properties of quantum entanglement to unlock unprecedented radar sensitivity. There are many challenges in developing quantum radar, including overcoming its limited range, as current tests work only across distances of dozens of feet.

Quantum Information Engineering Technology Research Center in Anhui province, China, developed a new technology which is concerning to the West. China's new tech has been called a "photon catcher" due to its ability to detect a single photon. China revealed that it began mass producing photon catchers in October 2025, and the highly sensitive components could be the key to unlock usable quantum radar systems.

Quantum radar offers a means of identifying objects that traditional radar simply can't come close to achieving. Stealth works be reducing the amount of radio waves an object reflects back to the radar receiver. If not enough radio waves are sent back, it's impossible for the receiver to separate the returned signal from ambient radio noise. 

In a quantum radar system, a pair of photons is entangled (essentially, embedded with information that marks them as a pair). One photon, the "signal," is emitted, while another, the "idler," is stored in quantum memory. Quantum radar looks at incoming photons and compares them to its stored photons. If an incoming photon matches one of the stored photons, then you can definitely say it has reflected off of something. This is where China's new photon detector comes into play; because it can detect a single photon in a sea of noise, it can essentially cut out all of the interference. 

Currently, this only works over short distances because it's relatively easy to make entangled pairs of microwave or infrared photons, which have a limited range, but it's much harder to make pairs of radio photons, which can travel much farther. Storing photons to retain their quantum coherence is another challenge yet to be overcome. Quantum computers need to be kept at temperatures near absolute zero to preserve their quantum coherence, something that is not easy to achieve in field-ready equipment. It should be noted that China doesn't have a working quantum radar. Instead, it's developed technology that could eventually be a step in the right direction.

Needless to say, defense planners in the West are concerned about the potential of China's nascent quantum radar technology. Photon detectors could overcome some of the current challenges in developing a working quantum radar, pushing the technology closer to reality. If everything China has revealed (and the stuff it hasn't) proves true, quantum radar systems could one day effectively dismantle the era of Western stealth dominance. That's a decades-long advantage, brought with the introduction of the The F-117 Nighthawk in 1981.  

The United States and many of its allies have built their air combat power around stealth technology, so removing the advantage could be disastrous in future operations. Add to that the lack of a similar system in use by the West, and China has the potential to take full advantage of what would undoubtedly be a shift in stealth superiority. The West would still have stealth aircraft in operation, but without their ability to fly undetected by Chinese quantum radar systems, they would become vulnerable.

In the ongoing evolution of technological warfare, the West would have to come up with a countermeasure or an entirely new stealth system to compensate and overcome China's growing advantage. Fortunately, a workable system is still a long way off, and China is hardly the only nation working on quantum radars. Add to that the nature of Chinese propaganda, and it's anyone's guess how far along the nation truly is in developing the technology.