In the field of modern air combat, the early warning aircraft has become an indispensable piece of equipment for the Air Force. Without it, the Air Force would be "unable to function." Among them, the large early warning aircraft can be called the "air command headquarters" and is the mainstay of the air force of major countries. Careful netizens will find a detail. The Indian Air Force early warning aircraft and the Chinese Air Force early warning aircraft are relatively similar in appearance, so everyone will inevitably have questions: Why does this happen? Which one is more advanced?
The large early warning aircraft used by the Indian Air Force is the A-50EI, and the large early warning aircraft used by the Chinese Air Force is the Air Police-2000. The former is an Indian improved version of Russia's own A-50 early warning aircraft , and the latter is an early warning aircraft independently developed by China with different origins. However, since both aircraft use the Russian Il-76 strategic transport aircraft as the carrier aircraft, their appearance is very similar. Based on the IL-76 fuselage, a huge disc antenna was added to the top of the aircraft. A special workshop was designed internally and a large number of communication equipment was installed to connect with various antennas and detection equipment outside the aircraft. . The staff in the AWACS aircraft will summarize the information immediately and report the activities of the enemy aircraft cluster. The frontline commander of the Air Force may be directly in the AWACS aircraft or at the ground station.
A-50EI and KJ-2000 use the same carrier aircraft. Both aircraft have almost the same air time, so we will focus on the differences between the two. Let’s talk about radar first. The main task of early warning aircraft is to detect the enemy’s movement, so the radar detection range is the first hard indicator. In 2004, India, Israel, and Russia reached a tripartite contract. Russia provided three IL-76TD transport aircraft, and Israel provided three sets of EL/W2090 Falcon early warning radars. India modified the aircraft with the help of Russia. , so the A-50EI is a proper "Russian-Israeli hybrid". India is very smart and has taken a fancy to Israel's electronic technology. After all, Russia's avionics level is really limited and not much better than India.
According to India and Israel, the EL/W2090 Falcon early warning radar has a detection range of 400 kilometers, can track 250 targets at the same time, can monitor ground conditions, and can cover ground battlefields within 150-180 kilometers at most. Although the paper data sounds good, in fact this radar has limited detection capabilities and can only function in the L-band, with a frequency of 1-2GHZ and a wavelength of 15-30 cm. The Indian Army did not purchase auxiliary advanced radar for the A-50EI, resulting in the aircraft having acceptable air-to-air detection capabilities but insufficient ground detection capabilities.
The Air Police-2000 is different. In addition to the large radar on the top of the aircraft, a synthetic aperture radar is also installed in the lower part of the cockpit. This radar technology is more advanced and works closely with the top radar to achieve true 360 degrees without blind spots. , integrated air and space detection. Moreover, it is said that the large radar on the top of the Kongjing-2000 can detect at least 500-600 kilometers. If this statement is true, there is no doubt that the Kongjing-2000 can see further. As for the ground detection capability, it is several miles ahead of the A-50EI. Therefore, in terms of the most critical indicator detection capability, the Kongjing-2000 completely wins.
Next, let’s talk about communication transmission capabilities. When the early warning aircraft provides information support for the air combat formation, it must not only be accurate, but also rapid. Because fighter and strategic bomber can generally reach a speed of about Mach 2, far exceeding the slow-moving ground armored group and infantry brigade. Therefore, after the early warning aircraft discovers the activity trajectory of the enemy fighter, it must make a judgment within a few seconds and quickly transmit the information to the forefront fighter squadron. The fighter will immediately go to the relevant airspace and deploy air combat tactics at the same time. Therefore, the speed of information intelligence determines which party can seize the opportunity better. Since the communication transmission speed of the Russian A-50 early warning aircraft is more than ten times slower than that of the American E-3 Watchtower early warning aircraft, the outside world is generally not optimistic about the capabilities of the Russian early warning aircraft .
After India adopted Israel's supporting communication transmission technology, the aircraft is better than Russia's own A-50, but there is still a gap compared with the United States and China, but this gap is not big. In recent years, China's electronic communication technology has developed rapidly. The self-developed Beidou navigation system has matured and will compete with the United States' GPS in the future. Therefore, China is actually the world's top level in the field of electronic communication. What needs to be solved now is the production of semiconductor raw materials and basic components. If some parts and components can get rid of their dependence on Japanese companies, China's electronic communication technology will truly stand at the forefront of the world. Judging from the information transmission level of the KJ-500 early warning aircraft, it is not much worse than the American E-2D and E-3. Therefore, in terms of communication transmission capabilities, the upgraded KJ-2000 will also be more advanced than the Indian A-50EI.
After comparing these two aspects, the judgment has been made. The Air Police-2000 is better than the A-50EI, while the Air Police-500 has a shorter blanking time and most of its core functions are better than the Air Police-2000. There is still a gap between India and China in terms of early warning aircraft. As the rear commander of the air combat echelon, the AWACS is part of the system. How much role it can play depends on the capabilities of the fighter jets, bombers and tanker units. If these aircraft are compared, China's advantages are more obvious. In a more powerful system, the Kongjing-2000 will undoubtedly perform better, surpassing the A-50EI.
