Recently, pictures of South China Sea islands and reefs taken by photographers of Philippines were exposed on social media, allowing us to see the actual situation of Yongshu Reef in the South China Sea clearly and intuitively. We can't help but sigh that there have been earth-shaking changes here in just a few years, and the building complexes of various functional styles have become spectacular. People also unexpectedly discovered that the figure of the domestic KJ-500 appeared at the Yongshu Reef Airport. From the appearance, this is an early type KJ-500H affiliated to the Navy's land-based aviation company and has no oil pipe installed. The appearance of this KJ-500H also greatly solved many of the previous doubts about the South China Sea islands and reefs, and gave us a clearer understanding of the current situation in the South China Sea.
Accidentally exposed in Yongshu Reef -500H
The history of air early warning aircraft has a long history. As early as the end of Pacific War , the US Navy tried to install carrier-based radar on a carrier-based transport plane in response to the threat of Japan's "Kamikaze" suicide attack in order to detect Japanese aircraft in advance. This " radar + airborne aircraft" model is the early prototype of the modern early warning aircraft . my country started late in the field of early warning aircraft, and it was not until the beginning of the 21st century that it equipped the air police-2000 and air police-200. Among them, the former uses a domestic large-scale phased array radar (the external protective cover is disc-shaped), while the carrier is a Russian-made Il-76 transporter . Since this transformation has a great impact on the balance of the fuselage, it is necessary to carry out targeted transformation of Il-76, and the purchased carriers are not easy for various reasons, making the total number of 4 KJ-2000s. In contrast, the KJ-200 uses the Y-8 platform produced nationwide, and the production and transformation are not subject to external constraints. However, the body size of the Y-8 and the radar technology at that time limit the performance of the KJ-200.
has only 4 KJ-2000s installed for more than 15 years.
From the outside, the radar antenna carried by the KJ-200 is like a "balance beam", with limited size and blind spots in scanning, so the performance is very different from the "disk" of the KJ-2000, but the advantage lies in the simpler transformation and use. In the end, the Air Force Generals of the outstanding performance and sparse number of KJ-2000 (the US Air Force general believes that the performance of the KJ-2000 is better than that of the US-made E-3 early warning aircraft ), cooperates with the limited performance and numerous KJ-200 to perform strategic and tactical early warning tasks respectively, and builds the basic framework of the Air Force's air early warning system. However, the experience of the Navy and Air Force using the Air Force is not very good. Although its mechanical scanning mechanism and inherent structural defects are compensated by installing auxiliary antennas at the nose and tail of the aircraft, it cannot fundamentally solve the problem. Under the direct stimulation of actual needs and technological progress, the new generation of KJ-500 was successfully launched.
KJ-200 "balance beam" configuration limits performance
In September 2015, KJ-500, KJ-2000 and KJ-200 were reviewed together, making their first appearance in their service career. According to the description of the design unit, the KJ-500 is equipped with a new generation of digital array radar . "Compared with the large-scale early warning radar in service, the weight and radar antenna caliber have been greatly reduced, and the intelligence processing capability and anti-interference capability have been greatly improved", achieving the design goal of "small platform, large early warning, and high performance". More importantly, in March 2016, " Xinhua News Agency " published an article saying that the KJ-500 has achieved 100% domestic production, becoming the first AVIC-Industry early warning aircraft with both advanced and completely independent. This unprecedented situation has enabled the KJ-500 to obtain a large amount of development resources, and the scale of equipment has also expanded rapidly since then.
KJ-500, as well as the US E-2D and Israeli "Sea Eagle" and are the third-generation early warning aircraft
In May 2017, the US "Defense News" wrote that two KJ-500s have entered the frontier air base of Hainan Island and are preparing to replace the KJ-200, which was originally serving there. The article also stated that as of January of that year, the number of KJ-500s had exceeded 6, and at least two of them were KJ-500H specially developed for the Navy.Today, five years later, I once again saw the KJ-500H in the southern frontier, and the Yongshu Reef of the Nansha Islands, which is more dangerous and sensitive, which also confirms the maturity of the KJ-500 and the military attach importance to this area. However, I certainly cannot understand how the KJ-500H is deployed and patrolled on Yongshu Reef. In fact, there are also some controversies in the Aircraft Platform, Development Sequence and Operational Positioning, which makes public opinion seriously polarized about this early warning aircraft.
K-500 installation scale is quite large
K-500 is often considered to be the product of equipped with a digital radar system based on Y-9. This statement cannot be said to be wrong, but it is indeed not accurate enough. In fact, the KJ-500 has no direct relationship with the Y-9, but uses the same body series - the Y-8 category three platform. The domestic Y-8 did not develop smoothly in its early years, and Shaanxi Aircraft's own technical reserves were relatively limited. It was not until the Air Force plan launched a series of high-tech models including the KJ-200 that the Y-8 truly gained the opportunity to take off. At that time, based on its own experience, Shaanxi Fei proposed the famous "Belt and Road Three" strategy, namely, first developing advanced Yun-8 three-type platforms to meet the needs of the Air Guard-200, and then derived early warning aircraft (Jian Guard-200), transport aircraft (Yuan-9), and civil aviation aircraft (Yuan-8F600). As for the so-called "three types of platforms", it is actually the most basic body and power configuration of the aircraft, which belongs to the same concept as the vehicle's "chassis".
Although the body and coating are similar, the KJ-500 did not use the Y-9 platform
in the picture above. When everything was developing smoothly, a vicious accident occurred in June 2006 seriously impacted the development of the Y-8 three-type platform. Although the reason was later found out, the KJ-200 was completed and put into service, but the planning of the Y-9 and Y-8F600 still stagnated. It was only after May 2008 that the military continued to vigorously develop air transportation forces, and the Y-20 and Z-20 were successively launched, and the Y-9 regained its vitality. In November 2014, the Y-9 made its first public debut at the Zhuhai Air Show, just 10 months earlier than the KJ-500. Given the complexity of the digital radar system, this time interval means that it is impossible to develop the Air Guard-500 based on it after the Y-9 is put into service. The KJ-500 actually shares three types of Y-8 platforms with the Y-9 and the KJ-200, and mainly achieves the overall upgrade of early warning capabilities through the improvement of radar system performance.
The media speculated that the domestic early warning machine series
is repeated because the saying "renovation of the KJ-500 based on the Y-9" is too common. In the eyes of many people, the KJ-500, which still uses the Y-8 third-class platform, is limited in performance due to platform limitations. This is the way, it seems like the Russian-made Su-30MKI that was equipped with vector nozzles later, it cannot be compared with the US-made F-22A, which has an initial design with a vector nozzle. In fact, the initial plan for the Air-8 third-class platform was to develop as the main equipment. Although it is an alternative model of the Air-200 on the surface, it is far from comparable to the Air-200 in the new system. In other words, the redesigned KJ-500 is not only far superior to the KJ-200, but is even stronger than the KJ-2000.
KJ-2000's internal console
is a bit unacceptable. After all, the strategic significance and performance of large-scale early warning aircraft have long been well known. What can the medium-sizedKJ-500 replace it? In fact, the reason is very simple. my country's progress in radar and the entire electronic information field is really fast. As a large early warning aircraft, the advantages of the KJ-2000 are mainly in three aspects: radar equipment size, air stagnation time, and internal space, which brings three technical advantages: radar with a longer detection range, longer cruise time, and faster information processing. However, the KJ-500 is equipped with a new generation of digital radar. The generation difference of the working mechanism enables the use of smaller radars and less space to achieve comprehensive performance surpassing.
Kuan-500 vs.Kuan-2000 andKuan-600, compare
, of course, in comparison, there is still some gap in the air stagnation time and range ofKuan-500.However, after the early Air Guard-500A and Air Guard-500H, the domestic "Jet-500B" has been launched with air oil receptive capabilities. Combined with the oil transport-20 that appeared frequently not long ago, this will no longer be a problem. In terms of the most critical information processing technology , no matter how outstanding the processing system of the early warning machine is, it cannot be compared with ground supercomputers. Thanks to the strong strength of my country's broadband and communication technology, the real-time high-throughput transmission between the early warning machine and the ground has become a reality. In the report, the official also emphasized the reasons for the "intelligence processing capability" of the Air War-500. The comprehensive technical expertise of the KJ-500 has greatly improved its comprehensive performance, which has brought obvious tactical application advantages. The cost is relatively low, the quantity is large and easy to deploy, and even cutting-edge airports can be accessed (such as Yongshu Reef Airport in the Nansha Islands), which is difficult for the Air Police-2000 to achieve.
"KJV-500B" with air oil receptive capabilities
In fact, there are only three active third-generation early warning aircraft recognized worldwide at present, namely the US E-2D, the Israeli "Sea Eagle" and the China KJ-500, all of which are medium-sized early warning aircraft. This shows that under the stimulation of new technologies, powerful countries have all mediumed the special early warning aircraft. As for large-scale early warning aircraft, it has not actually disappeared. It is just that when medium-sized machines can meet the needs, large-scale special early warning aircraft is too wasteful, and integrating other needs to develop in a multi-purpose direction is the right way. For example, the early fighter , bomber , and attack aircraft originally did not interfere with each other in a system, but with the advancement of technology, the tasks of the three can eventually be completed by multi-purpose fighters such as J-16, and F-15EX. The development trend of early warning aircraft is actually the same.
Officially disclosed Y-20 electronic warfare modified CG
Since there are only 4 "strategic" models of the KJ-2000, the outside world has always been looking forward to the development of a new generation of early warning aircraft of the Y-20. According to official information, the Y-20 will indeed develop a modification of electronic warfare in the future, but it is no longer a dedicated early warning aircraft. The KJ-500 is destined to be proud of an era. In fact, in the close contact incident of the J-20 and F-35 over the East China Sea that was shocked in March this year, the KJ-500, together with the Pili-15 and J-20, was regarded by the US as the three pillars of the Chinese Air Force's air combat. Now the J-20 has been equipped with the Southern Theater Command, and the Maritime Air Police-500H has directly entered the Nansha Front Airport. Most of the airspace in the South China Sea is under our control and deterrence. It is not easy for foreign forces to cause trouble.
Israel's "Sea Eagle" early warning aircraft uses radar and the body to conformally design
In fact, a senior US Navy general had previously complained that once its aircraft carrier formation approached the South China Sea, it would be short-range deterred by our mixed aircraft group and ships. Recalling the interception of foreign military aircraft and warship that have occurred many times in the South China Sea since the beginning of the year, the role played by the South China Sea island surveillance force represented by the KJ-500H is self-evident. The unexpected exposure of the Air Police-500H once again proves its unique position in the naval and air force early warning system, and also allows the outside world to realize that the new generation of domestic main early warning aircraft are everywhere and invincible.
