air show at the Dubai Air Show. The US military is preparing to order Boeing's E-7 early warning aircraft to replace the old E-3 early warning aircraft starting next year. This should have been a thing worthy of the US Air Force's happiness, but when the Chief of Staff of the US Air Force demonstrated the necessity of this matter, he revealed a different news: the US Air Force's existing air early warning fleet has a proper rate of less than 40%, and more than half of the E-3 early warning aircraft have been in a long-term state, and it has not been replaced.
The US military's active E-3 is an aircraft that started service in the 1970s after all; considering that the Boeing 707/C-135 platform originally used for modification has been discontinued for many years, spare parts are difficult to find, and the poor condition is foreseeable, but I didn't expect that the US military has been so bad. According to the data that the Air Force Chief of Staff’s current proper rate of E-3 is less than 40%, then the air security capability is actually at a level that is not enough to describe.
The US Air Force is now equipped with a total of 31 E-3 early warning aircraft, which is also the only air early warning and command fleet of the US Air Force. However, if the calculation is based on the fact that only 4 of each 10 aircraft are in a perfect state and can be dispatched at any time with quality and quantity, then the US Air Force can actually fly only about 12 E-3 early warning aircraft. Not to mention comparing this number with the Chinese Air Force, it is almost inferior to the number of A-50s that the Russian Aerospace Force can fly; our army's HNA can almost laugh at.
Simply calculate, the number of three large-scale early warning aircraft of our army now KJ-200, KJ-2000 and KJ-500 has far exceeded this number, which is more than twice the total number of E-3 early warning aircraft that the US military can fly and fight, not to mention the profound skills that our country has accumulated in the field of radar , and The late-model technology advantages brought by the later model setting are; from this point of view, in the field of fixed-wing large early warning aircraft, our air force has already completed the catch-up of the US Air Force in terms of quantity and quality; and in modern air battles, the importance of the intelligence support and command capabilities provided by the early warning aircraft , let alone the importance of this special aircraft surpassing the US Air Force, which is also the confidence we are now talking about the strategic air force.
It’s like every time I talk about the US Navy’s current difficulties in the shipbuilding industry collapse and replacing the shipbuilding industry, and when it will face a large collapse in 10 years, someone will definitely mention that Japan and South Korea are very powerful; but they completely ignore US laws and domestic politics, it is impossible to allow the navy to purchase ships built abroad. At this time, someone will mention that US Navy Air Force has a large number of early warning aircraft, and there are still many US allies, but they completely ignore that these aircraft are not controlled by the combat needs of the US Air Force; in terms of the combat needs and hard power comparison between the air forces of China and the United States, the US Air Force has indeed lagged behind my country in the early warning aircraft.
Indeed, if we count the 13 early warning aircraft squadrons of the U.S. Navy Aviation, it is true that the U.S. military still has the largest early warning fleet in the world. However, not to mention the conflicts between the U.S. Navy, these carrier-based early warning aircrafts in the U.S. Navy serve the Navy Aviation . After ensuring the deployment and use of various carrier-based aircraft wings, they will not have enough energy to support the air force at all; let alone the E-2, as a carrier-based early warning aircraft, is a big circle smaller in size. Whether it is radar performance or air command capabilities, it is incomparable to large shore-based early warning aircraft.
and NATO have many early warning aircraft, and the NATO joint fleet jointly built by many countries has dozens of early warning aircraft used.But it is obvious that the early warning aircraft of the NATO joint fleet will not fly far away from the Asia-Pacific region to help the US military operations in the Western Pacific region. After all, they must ensure the mission of the North Atlantic Mediterranean to the front line of Middle East . Although the E-767 transport aircraft that Japan airs from is no different from the E-3 in level, they are responsible for the air defense operations of the narrow and long Japanese archipelago , and it is impossible to draw more troops to help the US naval and air combat in Guam and even further south.
The US Air Force can really maneuver around the world, so that the early warning aircraft it deploys in any place where combat is needed, is really only the precious 30 own aircraft in the US Air Force itself. If these aircraft are in good condition, it is naturally enough. However, now only 12 are in full condition to ensure combat effectiveness, that is another matter. The US Air Force will inevitably have a huge gap in air situation support and air combat command tasks undertaken by the US Air Force in wartime relying on early warning aircraft.
Therefore, it is easy to understand that the United States now purchases E-7 early warning aircraft that was originally prepared for export customers. The old fleet has really reached the last stage of its lifespan and cannot be used. If it is not updated, the US Air Force will experience the disastrous consequences of the general age of US naval ships; but even if new aircraft are purchased next year, then the delivery will not quench the near thirst. In the next few years, the US Air Force will face a situation where the air warning capabilities are far different than our army.
What's more, the Americans' equipment is being updated, and our army's fleet is also expanding. When the US military replaces the old E-3 with new aircraft before continuing to expand its fleet, the updated generation of early warning aircraft may all be in service; the Americans are lagging behind in the early warning aircraft since today, and will continue to fall behind in the future. It can be imagined that in the future, some of the US military's fleets will become more and more backward.
