In the mid-to-late 1990s, in order to obtain advanced early warning aircraft, my country began to cooperate with Israel. The two sides agreed to jointly develop, and each was responsible for different systems. The protagonist of the cooperation between the two countries was the "

text/Xiaozhi

In the mid-to-late 1990s, in order to obtain the advanced early warning aircraft , my country began to cooperate with Israel. The two sides agreed to jointly develop, and each was responsible for different systems. The protagonist of the cooperation between the two countries was the "Felcon" early warning aircraft. This early warning aircraft is the world's first phased array radar early warning aircraft with advanced performance, but the United States does not want to see the Chinese army obtain advanced early warning aircraft. Under the pressure of the United States, Israel finally tore up its contract with China. This is cheaper India, who was laughing at the side, and India finally obtained three "Felcon" early warning aircraft originally planned to be sold to China for US$1.1 billion. As one goes up and down, the air power comparison between China and India has undergone changes that are unfavorable to China, but it is a blessing that the United States has lost its power. The pressure from the United States, Israel's breach of contract and India's take-offs have strengthened my country's determination to develop domestic early warning aircraft. With the research of many scientific research institutes in my country day and night, the Air Police-2000 early warning aircraft was successfully installed. After losing the "Felcon" early warning aircraft, my country has built a more advanced early warning aircraft than " Felcon ". Today we will talk about early warning aircraft.

KA 2000 Early Warning Aircraft

Early Warning Aircraft, full name is an air command early warning aircraft. It is a military aircraft equipped with long-range radar to search and monitor air or sea targets. The appearance of the early warning aircraft is very recognizable. "Big body, fat belly, and radar back" refers to it.

The earliest early warning machine was born in the late stage of World War II . When the United States and Japan were fighting fiercely, the mysterious Japanese army established the " Kamikaze Special Attack Team ", which is good at suicide attacks, and launched a fierce attack on the US military. As the saying goes, "Defense day and night, it is difficult for a madman to prevent." In order to deal with crazy opponents, the US military has rushed to develop equipment that can provide more comprehensive protection, and early warning aircraft was born.

In March 1945, the world's first early warning aircraft, TBM-3W, began to serve

. In the First World War, Britain took the lead in inventing ground radar, which judged whether there was a threat in an invisible place to approach. However, because the earth is round and affected by ground curvature, it is basically impossible for ground radar and carrier-based radar to "see" targets below sea level. Similarly, for low-altitude flying objects, ordinary radars have to wait until the target is approaching before they can detect them. In this way, defense is of little significance. Now, with the early warning aircraft, the radar has flew into the sky, and the detection distance of low-altitude targets has increased dozens of times. The target can be discovered hundreds of kilometers away, greatly increasing the warning time.

early carrier-based early warning aircraft mostly use carrier-based bombers, anti-submarine aircraft and attack aircraft as platforms. Subsequently, early warning aircraft with transport aircraft /passenger aircraft appeared. The representative models include the United States' EC-121, E-2 series, E-3 series, E-767, "weed tail" early warning aircraft, and Russia's A-50 early warning aircraft .

uses transport aircraft/passenger aircraft as early warning aircraft platform, which greatly improves its space, maximum take-off weight, and flight performance. Large-scale early warning radar and command and control systems can be installed to improve detection performance, and it is also easy to increase the task electronic system workbench and personnel, so that the early warning aircraft not only has early warning detection functions, but also has command and guidance functions.

Differences between transport aircraft/passenger aircraft platform

Although the transport aircraft platform and civil passenger aircraft platform are basically the same in terms of space size, maximum take-off weight, and flight performance, there are still differences between the two and each has its own advantages. The advantages of the

passenger aircraft platform are mainly reflected in the following three aspects. First, the passenger aircraft focuses on economical use. Usually, the fuselage is relatively thin and large. At the beginning of the design, it emphasizes reducing the resistance of the entire aircraft and increasing the retractability ratio of . The transport aircraft focuses on loading capacity, which requires a wide fuselage space, a large fuselage diameter, and a sharp upward sequential rear section of the rear fuselage, which makes the entire machine relatively large resistance. Second, the empty machine structure is lighter.Compared with transport aircraft, civil passenger aircraft do not need to consider loading heavy/large-scale materials (such as armored vehicles, etc.), the floor strength is required to be smaller than that of transport aircraft, and the structural weight is lighter. Third, it is more secure. When a passenger aircraft is put into market operation, it is necessary to obtain an airworthiness certificate . Although the airworthiness regulations are the minimum safety standard for civilian passenger aircraft, they are more stringent than the development standards of for military transport aircraft. The airworthiness procedure of the carrier platform is of great significance to aircraft such as early warning aircraft that are expensive, dense onboard personnel and significant strategic value. The E-767 is the world's first early warning aircraft to be certified by the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR), and it shows new requirements for early warning aircraft. The advantages of the transport aircraft platform are reflected in the following two aspects: First, the transport aircraft has better maneuverability, such as the transport aircraft's hovering performance and descent performance, which can enable the early warning aircraft to maneuver in a relatively narrow airspace to avoid the threat of enemy surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns, and at the same time meet the requirements of early warning aircraft to take emergency descent measures under high threat situations. Second, airports are more adaptable. The transport aircraft can take off and land at a simple airport under certain conditions, which is conducive to the emergency landing of early warning aircraft in emergency situations.

small passenger aircraft/business aircraft platform

If factors such as military needs, development costs and usage costs are considered comprehensively, early warning aircraft with small passenger aircraft/business aircraft as the platform also has good development prospects. For example, Israel's "Sea Eagle" early warning aircraft uses the "Gulfstream" G550 remote business aircraft as a platform to install the Israeli EL/W-2085 mission electronic system. The aircraft's fuselage is 29.39m long, with a wingspan of 28.50m, a maximum take-off weight of about 41,270kg, a maximum range of about 12,500km, a battery life of about 9h, and can accommodate 6 mission crews.

"Sea Eagle" Early Warning Machine

In order to reduce drag, the early warning radar antenna adopts "quasi-conformal" array technology, that is, an L-band array is used on both sides of the fuselage, and an S-band array is used on the nose and tail of the fuselage, which can provide 360° coverage of the azimuth and three-coordinate detection capabilities. The radar detects a distance of about 400km for conventional targets, which is basically the same as the detection capability of of the E-3 early warning aircraft.

helicopter platform

Representative models of using helicopters as early warning aircraft platforms include the British "Aquaman", Italy's EH101-Mk112 and Russia's Ka-31 early warning helicopter.

In the 1982 Horse Island War , the British Navy's "Sheffield" missile destroyer was sunk. The British subsequent analysis believed that the lack of air early warning power was the main reason. At that time, its "Tangling" carrier-based early warning aircraft had been retired, and the land-based "Shackleton" early warning aircraft could not fly to places far away from the local area to fight, while the "Hunting Fan" early warning aircraft was still under development. Therefore, the UK decided to use the carrier-based "Aquaman" helicopter as a platform to develop the early warning helicopter . The fuselage of the aircraft is 22.15m long, rotor diameter is 18.90m, maximum take-off weight is about 9752kg, cruise speed is about 204km/h, usage ceiling is about 4480m, and maximum range is about 1482km.

Compared with the development of early warning aircraft with helicopters as the platform, the load capacity and space are not large, the practical ceiling is low, the cruise speed and maximum range cannot be compared with the fixed-wing early warning aircraft platform, and the combat effectiveness is limited. However, in the absence of large aircraft carriers as fixed-wing early warning aircraft bases, early warning helicopters are also an option.

"Tangling" carrier-based early warning aircraft

Russian card-31 early warning helicopter

With the advancement of radar technology, the role of early warning aircraft is not just a reconnaissance radar. There are also some aspects of information distribution, command and control, joint operations, etc. This is why early warning aircraft is usually called an air command center. The characteristics of early warning aircraft can be summarized as follows:

01 air command

early warning aircraft moves the functions of the ground command post into the sky, not only can you grasp the most complete information at any time, but you can also cross-link, feedback and share in a timely and efficient manner within the equipment system.

02 radar reflection cross-sectional area is large

Compared with the size of fighter , Boeing 707, E-2, Il-76, etc., the body length is 17-55m, the wingspan is 24-50m, and the radar reflection area is estimated to be 20-100m2, which is easy to be detected by radar.

03 strong detection capability

early warning aircraft mostly adopts a phased array system, with frequency bands such as P, L, S, X, etc. The target detection distance for RCS is 5m2 is generally greater than 400km. For example, the detection distance of the E-3 early warning aircraft in the United States is 370km, and the detection distance of Russian A-50 is 410km, and the new early warning aircraft all have the detection ability of stealth targets.

E-3 early warning machine

04 strong reconnaissance capabilities

early warning machine is equipped with an electronic reconnaissance and communication reconnaissance system. It can detect radar signals above the surrounding horizon, including enemy-to-me recognition signals, secondary radar signals, radar interference signals, missile guidance signals and command signals, and at the same time, it can detect communication networks between aircraft and aircraft, aircraft and ground.

05 Stay away from the war zone

Early warning aircraft usually fly in airspace 150km-400km away from the war zone, and often move in areas with access to its own firepower.

06 Cooperative Operations

Early warning aircraft can fly to the war zone with combat troops, and at the same time guide dozens of our own aircraft to attack enemy air and ground targets. There are usually 6-8 fighter jets escorting around the early warning aircraft about 10km away. Since the early warning aircraft finds that the air threat is far away, there is plenty of time to command our own aircraft to intercept incoming enemy aircraft. As a powerful weapon to double the combat effectiveness of the Air Force,

early warning aircraft can discover, identify, and track up to hundreds of enemy aircraft targets hundreds of kilometers away. Therefore, early warning aircraft can play a crucial role in modern warfare. The advantages of early warning aircraft have also become its threat. With the continuous development of military forces in various countries, it is also worth considering what methods can avoid the threat brought by early warning aircraft in future operations. In terms of the characteristics of early warning aircraft, there are three aspects to restrict early warning aircraft.

01 Electronic jammer

early warning aircraft can deal with traditional attack methods lies in its powerful detection and reconnaissance capabilities, can detect threats at a long distance, and direct its own aircraft to intercept. However, when encountering the powerful radar interference and communication interference of the enemy electronic warfare aircraft , its detection distance and communication capabilities will be greatly reduced. The reduction in detection distance will lead to the incoming threat being unable to be sensed in time, and the decline in communication efficiency will lead to the inability to command and escort fighter jets to intercept in time, which will pose a threat to the battlefield survivability of the early warning aircraft.

02 ultra-long-range missile

early warning aircraft has strong detection and monitoring capabilities, so its defense capabilities are strong, making the enemy's combat platform unable to conduct close-range attacks, limiting the use of enemy firepower. If the range of the attack weapon is greater than the radius of the early warning aircraft's reconnaissance and surveillance, and the attack mode outside the zone is adopted, it will be difficult for the early warning aircraft to take effective defense measures. Of course, this has requirements for missile-launched fighter jets. The missile-launched fighter jets need to have a powerful radar system that can quickly lock early warning aircraft at the distance of attack. Secondly, the fighter jets must be fast, which can shorten the enemy's interception time.

mG31

03 Improve aircraft stealth performance

If the fighter can improve stealth performance, find the radar detection blind spot of the early warning aircraft, and be discovered later, it can also hit the early warning aircraft to a certain extent.

Because of the strong detection and reconnaissance capabilities of the early warning aircraft, it can be said to be a "six-mile eye in the air". It is hard to say whether it will become the primary target of attack in the future. It is worth looking forward to that the future future of the early warning aircraft will become brighter and brighter. After all, the early warning aircraft will surely become the first line of defense on the battlefield in the future.

References:

Nie Yi, Huang Wenyun. A brief analysis of early warning aircraft platform selection [J]. International Aviation, 2012(6):28-30.

Hao Fei, Feng Bing, Yan Bo. Combat threat and response analysis of early warning aircraft [J]. Electronic Technology and Software Engineering, 2021(3):81-82.

AK Queen, DIGITALUNIT (painting). Air Command Post-At Early Warning Aircraft [J]. Little Copernicus: Military Science, 2021(5):34-37.