The announcement of the 2025 State Preeminent Science and Technology Award has cast a spotlight on Ben De, a figure whose career mirrors China’s long-term strategic pivot toward technological self-reliance in military defense. As a pioneer of phased array and airborne pulse Doppler radar, Ben is credited with forging the 'fire eyes' of the People’s Liberation Army, providing the sensory backbone for modern Chinese air superiority and strategic early warning.
Born into poverty in 1938, Ben’s trajectory from a rural village to the vanguard of military research underscores the Chinese government’s narrative of national rejuvenation through indigenous innovation. His early work at the 14th Institute of the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) focused on the '7010' project, a massive ground-based phased array radar. This achievement made China only the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union, to possess long-range ballistic missile early warning capabilities.
The strategic significance of Ben’s work shifted in the 1980s toward the miniaturization and complexity of airborne systems. At a time when Western powers restricted the export of high-end fire-control radar, Ben led a team of hundreds to master pulse Doppler (PD) technology. This development was critical for modernizing China’s fighter fleet, allowing aircraft to distinguish low-flying targets against ground clutter—a prerequisite for contemporary 'look-down, shoot-down' aerial combat.
Beyond technical milestones, Ben’s legacy is defined by a rigorous commitment to testing under duress. Now nearing 90, he remains an active figure in the research community, advocating for continued breakthroughs in space-based surveillance and next-generation sensing. His story is leveraged by state media not just as a biographical tribute, but as a blueprint for the next generation of scientists facing a new era of international technological competition and 'bottleneck' constraints.