The war lasted for several months, and many Russian media deplored the country's insufficient military strength. Among them, the Russian army seriously lacks early warning aircraft , which is considered to be a key factor in the passive situation of the war.
An article written by the Russian topcor website pointed out that the Russian army needs to quickly purchase a batch of advanced early warning aircraft with a large number that can be deployed flexibly and quickly. Therefore, only the KJ-600 early warning aircraft can meet these requirements.
Sergei Marzhesky, the author of the article, said that the Russian navy and army are trapped in the dilemma of lack of advanced weapons, resulting in the inability to defeat the enemy quickly and decisively, because behind the opponent is the collective military power of the entire West. If the Russian army had a sufficient number of early warning aircraft, it could have made attacks on Russian oil depots in Ukraine, sneak attacks on islands in the Black Sea, and "leapfrog" raids by helicopters impossible.
However, although the Soviet Union/Russia developed early warning aircraft half a century ago, the irony is that Russia still does not have a few decent early warning aircraft. According to public information, the Russian military currently has only 9 old Soviet-era A-50 early warning aircraft , of which only 4 have been upgraded to the A-50U standard. Even the performance of these early warning aircraft is already outdated, and they are inferior to Western early warning aircraft in terms of detection range, target identification and indication, and combat management.
In theory, Russia’s most advanced early warning aircraft is the A-100, which was developed many years ago. It is said to be able to control airspace within a radius of 650 kilometers within 6 hours and command its own fighters to attack 300 air targets. However, the A-100 early warning aircraft is still too complex for Russia. Mass production and delivery have not yet been achieved. The expected price is also too expensive. Even if it is delivered, only a few aircraft are likely to be delivered.
But the cruel reality of the war proved that the lack of early warning aircraft was extremely harmful to the Russian army. Even the A-50U early warning aircraft are too few in number, have insufficient performance, and their attendance rate is too low. They are completely unable to control the Ukrainian airspace. Even the NATO early warning aircraft can provide the Ukrainian army with strong air support by virtue of their quantity and performance advantages.
Therefore, Sergey Malzhesky believes that the Russian army is in urgent need of a batch of advanced early warning aircraft with advanced performance, larger numbers, and easy deployment. He believes that the most suitable early warning aircraft should be a small early warning aircraft of the level of the American E-2 "Hawkeye".
He believes that the "Eagle Eye" is a small carrier-based early warning aircraft that seems to be a "rare animal" in terms of demand, but its strategic application fields are far beyond aircraft carriers . During the Lebanon War in 1982, the Israeli Air Force was With the E-2C early warning aircraft , it effectively grasped the air situation and command in the theater, greatly improved combat efficiency, and firmly grasped the initiative on the battlefield, even though Israel has no aircraft carrier at all.
It can be seen that this small early warning aircraft is more suitable for the Russian army to be deployed on the front line. It not only meets the needs of performance, but also has higher flexibility and attendance rate. In contrast, the A-50 and A-100 are both designed on the Il-76 large transport aircraft platform and are far less flexible than the small E-2C/D early warning aircraft. But it is obvious that it is impossible for Russia to obtain the E-2 early warning aircraft .
In fact, a similar small carrier-based early warning aircraft was developed during the Soviet era, namely the Yak-44 early warning aircraft . However, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the abortion of the Ulyanovsk-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Yak-44 lost its future without the catapult.
But after entering the 21st century, another player appeared and developed the same "rare animal". This is China. Based on the future new 003 aircraft carrier (already launched), China has developed its own Xi'an KI-600 (Kongjing-600) early warning aircraft, which can take off from the aircraft carrier using the electromagnetic catapult . The author said that this early warning aircraft is equipped with the advanced active phased array radar , which can detect air targets up to 450 kilometers and ground targets up to 600 kilometers, and its take-off weight is only more than 30 tons. The author of
suggests that this small early warning aircraft is very suitable for the Russian river and sea fleet.If the Black Sea Fleet has at least 3-4 export version KJ-600 early warning aircraft, it can effectively turn the tide of the war. It can not only continuously monitor the situation in the Black Sea waters and the Ukrainian coast, thereby preventing missiles and drones from attacking Russian ships and drilling rigs. platform to prevent the tragedy of the cruiser "Moscow" from happening again.
The author also believes that not only the Black Sea Fleet, but also the land, sea and air forces are in urgent need of small early warning aircraft, and there are many of them. Since Russia does not have similar products at all, the stubborn mentality of "refusing to import weapons" should be changed, and the primary goal of everything should be to protect the lives of Russian soldiers. (Author: Tao Mujian)
