Type 704 Radar The Type 704 is a counter - battery radar designed to accurately locate the hostile artillery , rocket and ground - to - ground missile launcher immediately after the firing of enemy , and support friendly artillery by providing guidance of counter fire . Built by NORINCO , it was first displayed publicly in 1988 ' s ASIADEX defence show . Development . Type 704 radar shares the same root as its larger cousin , the SLC - 2 Radar : four AN / TPQ - 37 Firefinder radar have been sold to China and this had become the foundation of SLC - 2 radar development . Aside from political reasons , the US $ 10 million plus unit price tag of TPQ - 37 ( including after sale logistic support ) was simply too costly for Chinese . Decision was made to develop a domestic equivalent after mastering the technologies of TPQ - 37 . After the initial test of TPQ - 37 in Tangshan ( 汤山 ) Range near Nanjing in 1988 , and in Xuanhua District in October of the same year , several shortcomings of TPQ - 37 were discovered and further intensive tests were conducted and completed in 1994 . The requirement of the Chinese domestic equivalent was subsequently modified to address these issues revealed in trials . Due to the limitation of the Chinese industrial capability at the time , decision was made to develop the Chinese domestic equivalent in several steps . The first step was to develop a smaller one , which would result in the Chinese equivalent of AN / TPQ - 36 Firefinder radar , Type 704 series radar , and based on the experience gained from this program , a more capable larger version in the same class of AN / TPQ - 37 Firefinder radar would be developed , which eventually resulted in SLC - 2 series . Type 704 Rdar . Type 704 is the first of the Type 704 series of counter - battery radar s . Developmental work of Type 704 begun in parallel with the introduction of AN / TPQ - 37 radar into Chinese service , and the reported experience gained on the Chinese reverse engineering of TPQ - 37 has influenced Type 704 radar . One problem revealed in the tests was that the reliability of TPQ - 37 is much lower than what was claimed . The reason was that when TPQ - 37 was deployed in environments with high humidity and high level of rainfall ( southern China ) , high salinity ( coastal regions ) , high altitude ( southwestern China ) , and subjected to daily high temperature differences ( northwestern China ) , malfunctions occurs more frequently . Type 704 radar was designed specifically to improve the reliability against these harsh environmental factors . Type 704A Radar . Type 704 is followed by its successor , Type 704A , which is fully solid state , fully digitized version , which further improved reliability and simplified logistics , and thus reduced the operational cost . One of the limitations of TPQ - 37 revealed in tests was that the it was less effective against projectiles with flat trajectory , so it is much more effective against howitzer and mortar rounds than rounds from 130 mm towed field gun M1954 ( M - 46 ) and its Chinese derivative Type 59 - 1 . Type 704A radar is designed to overcome this shortcoming by improving the capability against rounds with flat trajectory . BL904 Radar . A further improved variant based on Type 704A designated as BL904 has also been introduced . This latest version of Type 704 radar family reportedly utilizes the more advanced lens arrangement for its planar passive phased array antenna , instead of earlier simple horn arranged used in earlier versions . Unconfirmed Chinese claims also concludes that the BL904 radar also incorporate former - USSR counter - battery radar Zoopark - 1 radar , two of which was purchased by China from Ukraine , but such claim has yet to be verified by official sources and sources outside China . CS / RB1 Radar . At the 9th Zhuhai Airshow held in November 2012 , a new light weight counter battery radar designated as CS / RB1 made its public debut . Like Type 704 and BL904 radars , CS / RB1 is also designed primarily for detecting incoming projectiles down to the size of mortar round , though larger objects can be tracked as well . CS / RB1 is designed to be a light weight version of Type 704 / BL904 to be carried by individual soldiers ( when systems are breaking down into portions ) . CS / RB1 radar operates is a passive phased radar operates in L - band , and it is fully solid state , highly digitized , conformal array in cylindrical shape . , and it can be airdropped . References . 1 . " Fire Control Radar Technology " , Dec 1999 issue , Xi ' an Electronics Research Institute ( also known as Institute No . 206 of China Arms Industry Group Corporation ) , Xi ' an , December , 1999 , ISSN : 1008 - 8652 ， Domestic Chinese SN : CN 61 - 1214 / TJ . 2 . " Fire Control Radar Technology " , Feb 1995 issue , Xi ' an Electronics Research Institute ( also known as Institute No . 206 of China Arms Industry Group Corporation ) , Xi ' an , February , 1995 , ISSN : 1008 - 8652 ， Domestic Chinese SN : CN 61 - 1214 / TJ . 3 . " Ordnance Knowledge " , Jul 2007 issue , Ordnance Knowledge Magazine Publishing House , Beijing , July , 2007 , ISSN : 1000 - 4962 , Domestic Chinese SN : CN 11 - 1470 / TJ .