The recordWhat this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.
Record
Conflict relevance
This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.
Operators
Taiwan (Republic of China): Air Force air and missile defence
Battlefield role
Long-range detection and tracking of ballistic launches, and wide-area air surveillance. It is the sensor that starts the missile-defence sequence: without it, the interceptor layers beneath have no cue, and the civil warning system has nothing to trigger on.
Strengths
Detection range measured in thousands of kilometres, which is what allows a launch to be characterised — origin, trajectory, likely impact area — rather than merely noticed. It has been continuously operational since 2013 and is the single most consequential sensor in Taiwan's inventory by a wide margin.
Limitations
Every limitation of this capability follows from its being one large fixed installation. Published commentary consistently identifies it as an early target for exactly that reason, and the warning it provides is short in absolute terms — the strait is narrow and the flight times are measured in minutes, not tens of minutes. Its cost has been a recurring subject of Taiwanese legislative scrutiny. Vigil publishes no location, no coverage geometry, no detection ranges against specific target classes and no assessment of its survivability.
Campaign relevance
Derived: a participant organisation in these campaigns carries a typed equipment association with this system. That is not the same as documented use of the system in the campaign itself.
- Sustained pressure below the threshold Intensifying since 2020
via ROC Air Force (Documented, moderate confidence)
Visual identification
A large fixed building carrying flat phased-array antenna faces — a structure rather than a vehicle, with no rotating element. Not a system that is identified in the field; it is identified by being the only thing of its kind.
Documented conflict use
Operational since 2013 and continuously part of Taiwan's air and missile defence since. Taiwan publicly stated that the radar detected and tracked a Chinese ballistic missile through its opening phase of flight in July 2026, which is the clearest public demonstration of the capability on record and the reason the system's role is now discussed openly rather than obliquely.
Branch & service operators
- ROC Air Force Documented
Documented formations
- ROC Air Force Air Defense and Missile Command Documented · moderate confidence
Assessed as of2026-09Last reviewed2026-09-09