PLA revealed to be operating regimental level EW system

Sources close to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have revealed to MONCh during the DSA 2018 exhibition being held in Kuala Lumpur between 16 April and 19 April that the PLA has deployed the JN1101 Very High Frequency (VHF) mobile Electronic Warfare (EW) system.

The JN1101 is produced by the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC). Details on the JN1101 are sparse, although it is thought that the system has been developed to perform barrage and spot jamming across a 30 megahertz/MHz to 300MHz frequency range. This would allow the jamming to encompass most conventional tactical radio systems.

It appears that the JN1101 has been developed to provide the PLA with Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) gathering and Electronic Attack (EA) capabilities at the regimental, brigade and divisional level, with the possibility to network several systems together to provide corps/theatre level ELINT and EW capabilities alongside inhabited and unmanned airborne assets. Sources continued that the JN1101 may have been in service with the PLA for at least the past ten years.

Thomas Withington