Type 346 Chinese RadarType 346 Shipborne 3D Plate Array RadarCommon Designation: Type 346
There is conjecture as to the origin of this system. Is it wholly the work of an original Chinese research and development institute or does it contain elements of imported systems? There is a belief that the system might contain elements from existing systems in the Chinese military inventory, but knowing how Chinese R&D has developed over the last 10 years, it may be a completely new development capturing the very best of knowledge, components, packaging and software techniques currently available not only in China but globally. There is specific belief that some of the technology may be derived from the Ukrainian ISKRA company’s IL-220U that employs the 1L259M 3D monopulse emitter used in the land mobile ZOO PARK-2 weapon location system, but so far this has been refuted by the Ukrainians. The Type 346 (originally believed to be Type 382) has also been referred to as the Shipborne Active Phased Array Radar System (SAPARS) and is installed on two Type 052C FFG Luyang II hulls, LANZHOU (170) and HAIKOU (171). To date no parametric detail is known to have been overtly reported but if it does sport the 1L220-U front end, then it operates within NATO F-Band (3 ~ 4 GHz) and operating with the sub-band 3.0 ~ 3.4 GHz would accord with current ITU regulations although some sources suggest it might function in G-band (5,250 ~ 5,950 MHz), which has been favoured by the Chinese in a number of systems. 
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