In the modern battlefield, with the addition of informatization, the demand for high-tech weapons in air combat continues to increase, especially early warning aircraft. Looking around the world, few countries can equip advanced early warning aircraft. Air early warning aircraft is complex in technology and expensive in construction. Only a few military powers can equip it. my country is equipped with early warning aircraft late, but it is currently in the world's first echelon.
The start of China's early warning aircraft: It's not much later than the United States, but it's quite twists and turns
US E-3A early warning aircraft
In September 1969, China began to propose to develop its own early warning aircraft. This was indeed a far-sighted project back then: looking around the world, only the early warning machines of the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were successfully developed and put into service. In that era, China's exchanges with the Soviet Union were basically interrupted, and exchanges with Western countries led by the United States were indisputable; the air defense pressure in the northern part of the country was so great that it was hard to imagine now.
Kuaishou1 Early Warning Machine
The development of China's early warning machine was only less than ten years later than that of the United States. We can recover the gap in the national defense industry in the past ten years: just like the naval ship reading style in 2009, who would have thought that China had a large number of world-class destroyers in just 10 years later with the attitude of "putting dumplings"? But the law that cannot be violated is that the gap between China and the United States’ comprehensive national strength can be caught up in ten years? The KJ-1 was developed for nearly 10 years and finally dismissed. In the final analysis, it was still limited by China's electronic technology at that time.
The United States' early warning aircraft: It started early and developed rapidly, and the number was entirely dependent on the navy to carry
Although the United States began to put the first batch of E-2 "Hawkeye" early warning aircraft into service as early as the early 1960s and started quite early, the E-2 series is still the main carrier-based early warning aircraft on the US aircraft carrier . The United States has developed the fastest in the field of 's early warning aircraft during the Cold War: after the E-2 "Hawkeye" tactical early warning aircraft, it has successively developed the EC-121 "Guarding Star" series of reconnaissance/early warning aircraft and the E-3 "Wanglou" early warning aircraft . Its early start and rapid development are the true portrayal. And what is going on with "number of the numbers are all led by the navy"?
US carrier-based early warning aircraft is also very advanced
As we all know, the US Navy currently has 11 aircraft carriers: 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and 1 USS Ford aircraft carrier. Each aircraft carrier is equipped with 5 E-2C/D early warning aircraft, each landing and maintaining for 24 hours after working for 6 hours, which can achieve all-weather cruise. In addition, the US military has 15 E-2C/D as rotating land-based backup aircraft and personnel training aircraft, which will only be strengthened on aircraft carriers during wartime.
However, the E-2D radar architecture is generally a bit lacking: the radar component level, computer processing capabilities and detection methods are more advanced than the KW-500, but the scanning system still adopts traditional mechanical scanning, so it is relatively backward in the scanning system: even for targets with an area of 3 to 5 square meters of RCS (radar scattering cross-sectional area) of 3 to 5 square meters, the maximum detection distance is only 480km; the radar architecture of the E-3 series early warning aircraft has a maximum detection distance of only about 300km for targets of the same type.
US E-3 early warning aircraft is equipped earlier
According to public information, the US Navy currently has 70 E-2C/D equipment, and the US Air Force's early warning aircraft fleet has a total of 32 E-3 "Wanglou" series. Although it has been greatly improved, its development on the platform based on the Boeing-707 aircraft is indeed a little older. Overall, the U.S. Navy's early warning aircraft are currently more than twice that of the U.S. Air Force, and it is precisely because of the "number of them is led by the navy."
China's early warning aircraft: blowout development, quantity and quality catch up with
China's air police 2000 early warning aircraft
In terms of information displayed in public channels, China currently has 4 large-scale strategic early warning aircrafts of AFC-2000, 11 medium-sized tactical early warning aircrafts and more than 50 medium-sized tactical early warning aircrafts of AFC-500, with a total of about 65.Frankly speaking, the combat effectiveness of the KJ-2000 is greatly improved compared with the mechanical scanning phased array radar of the American E-3 early warning aircraft: if it detects targets with an RCS area of 3 to 5 square meters, the detection distance reaches 470km, leading the E-3 early warning aircraft to 170km!
KJV 500 Early Warning Aircraft
KJV-500 are equipped with radars with active phased array technology, especially theKJV-500. Its design and modeling time is late and it is naturally of latecomer advantage. Therefore, although the radar array it carries is less than KJV-2000, its detection distance is even 140% of the KJ-2000. It reaches 480km for the target detection distance of RCS of 1 square meter. If the target detection of the target with RCS of 3 to 5 square meter is detected, the distance will greatly exceed this number.
Obviously, the KJ-500 is a model in "large warning for small bodies". Even the KJ-600, which has just appeared, according to public information, even the KJ-600, as a carrier-based tactical early warning aircraft, has a maximum detection distance of up to 560km, which is even comparable to the KJ-2000 that was in service more than ten years ago. If the PLA can equip four aircraft carriers with carrier-based catapults at the same time in the future, then according to the ratio of one aircraft carrier with 6 aircraft, the KJ-600 will be equipped with at least 24 aircraft.
KJV 200 Early Warning Aircraft
At that time, China frankly said that the biggest shortage in China's early warning aircraft fleet is generally shorter range and lack of large strategic early warning aircraft. Although the U.S. Air Force's E-3 "Wanglou" series has relatively old body, it is qualified to be used as a strategic early warning aircraft; China has only 4 strategic early warning aircraft benchmarked by it. The KJ-200 and KJ-500 are based on the body improvements of the Y-9 , and the Y-9 is a medium-sized tactical transporter with a capacity of only 20 tons. This is based on the difference between the civil aviation industries of China and the United States.
At the military parade held on October 1, 2009, the KJ-2000 and the KJ-200 were unveiled as my country's first generation strategic and tactical early warning aircraft. Since then, China's early warning aircraft ushered in almost a blowout development: after the KJ-500, there are also the KJ-600 carrier-based early warning aircraft. After that, there will be a large strategic early warning aircraft developed based on domestic passenger aircraft. In terms of quality, Academician Wang Xiaomo , which mainly attacks radar development, once said: The airborne radar of the KJ-2000 is one generation ahead of the US E-3 early warning aircraft; Academician of the Chief Engineer of the KJ-2000 also said after the debut of the KJ-500: The digital array technology of the KJ-500 is two generations ahead of the airborne radar of the US E-3 early warning aircraft!
Summary: The situation is gradually flattening, and the comparison between China and the United States early warning machines is surprising
As of now, the horizontal comparison between China and the United States early warning machines is gradually flattening. Although the US E-3 strategic early warning aircraft has the advantages of long range and long air stagnation, China's total of 61 KJ-500 and KJ-200, almost twice that of the US E-3 strategic early warning aircraft, which is obviously slightly better in number. Over the Eurasian continental shelf, the radar advantage of the KJ-500 is completely useful.
Domestic fixed-wing carrier-based early warning aircraft is about to come out
Different from the US's global strategy. In some important areas, the United States must deploy early warning aircraft for it to cooperate with other air units in combat. Taking the huge U.S. naval fleet as an example, it is a helpless move to equip up to 11 aircraft carriers with 70 E-2C/D early warning aircraft to conduct global activities. It is obvious that China does not need to divide war zones for major sea areas around the world, nor does it need to maintain multiple aircraft carriers in various sea areas around the world at the same time, and there is relatively little demand for early warning aircraft.
Naval aviation 500 Early Warning Aircraft equipped by Navy Aviation Corps
Before the launch of the new generation of domestic large-scale strategic early warning aircraft, the KJ-500 and KJ-200 are basically enough: under this combat system for national air defense, only 24-hour early warning aircraft is required to maintain the duty of the major coastal megacities in China and key combat readiness areas. If the South China Sea is changing, the KJ-500H produced by the Navy Air Force can also be deployed to the island and reef airports in advance - don't forget that these island and reef airports are called "unsinkable aircraft carriers".
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 But large-scale strategic early warning aircraft are still late: First, China's strategic transport aircraft has a large gap and production capacity is limited, so it is impossible to extract production capacity for modification of strategic early warning aircraft. Secondly, China's civil aviation industry has developed relatively slowly. Only two regional passenger aircraft, ARJ-21 and C-919, can be modified early warning aircraft; and regional passenger aircraft are undoubtedly a typical example of "short legs". Even Japan is equipped with large EC-767 strategic early warning aircraft improved on the basis of Boeing-767 . It is undoubtedly an unwise choice to transform early warning aircraft on the basis of regional passenger aircraft.
However, when we open the information, it is not difficult to find that the gap between China and the United States early warning aircraft is getting smaller and smaller. In terms of special aircraft, the situation is gradually flattening. The advantages of early warning aircraft such as E-2D for the KJ-500 are only in terms of electronic components, radar components, computer processing capabilities and detection methods, and are not as good as the KJ-500 early warning aircraft in terms of scanning system. But when China's next generation early warning aircraft was unveiled, the Navy's fixed-wing carrier-based early warning aircraft and the KJ-500 early warning aircraft cooperated with each other. In the future, domestic passenger aircraft also had the possibility of modifying large early warning aircraft, and China's early warning aircraft strength would be more than the United States!
