Do we know if and how widespread and effective is the CEC practiced across all branches of the PLA (PLAGF, PLAAF, PLAN, PLARF, PLASSF) right now?
There appears to be an older, slower and non directed (means it's omnidirectional) datalink used with just about every vessel. They appear like dipoles on the mast arms.
The Type 055 was the first to introduce a phase array directed datalink or CEC similar to USG-2. You can find these four panels on top of the integrated mast above the four panels of the X-band AESA.
This shows you the evolution of the USN CEC. They began migrating to the third one on the right with four planar arrays around the late 2000s and is a required upgrade to AEGIS Baseline 9. This upgrade continues gradually throughout the fleet even today.
The Chinese four planar CEC array first appeared in the 055. But it has appeared in other ships. In the Liaoning, an older ESM set was removed to install four planar arrays on each side of the island. In the Shandong, these arrays are in the pyramid foot that holds the Type 382 radar at the top. The Fujian appears to bristle with these arrays, not just four, but six or eight, suggesting an enhanced system that will let it communicate with more ships or planes simultaneously. They are found in the crown mast on top of the island, well they are not yet there but the openings to fit them are already evident. On the Type 075, I find four planar arrays right where the two ESM units are in the main mast.
For aircraft, these would appear as tear drop blisters on the sides or a nice round blister on the bottom of the belly, a good example is the naval Z-20C. Some people say it's some kind of radar but I disagree. A radar would have been on the chin. You can suppose you can find blisters along naval Y-8s and Y-9s including AEW aircraft. It is obvious that naval aircraft and helicopters would connect to this network, especially if they are launched from such ships.
On the Type 054A Binzhou, the frigate had these arrays on the top of it's hanger as an trial platform. It went to it's Gulf of Aden mission with it and stopped over at Greece for a visit. These arrays were photographed by OSINT bloggers, though it was wrong to assume that they are some new radar. Since then the arrays have been removed from the Binzhou.
Any future MLU to older ships, including the 052C and 052D should take account of these.
In the prototype Lantern radar for the 054B at Wuhan, the stem of the radar featured these arrays, which point that they are part of the requirements even though the Lantern design was cancelled for the new dual sided radar design that has a much larger and more powerful radar than the one inside the Lantern.
