Xian MA60 MPA enters service with China Coast Guard, says report
Richard D Fisher Jr, Washington DC - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
16 May 2017
The maritime patrol version of the Xian Aircraft Industries (Group) Company (XAC) MA60 twin-turboprop aircraft has entered service with the China Coast Guard, Chinese media reported on 13 May.
The first platform was delivered to the service in early April 2016, according to an article published on the Weixin web page.
According to
Jane's All the World's Aircraft: Development & Production , this first maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) completed operational testing of its auxiliary fuel tanks in March 2016 as the final stage of airworthiness trials.
The report came almost three years after the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), XAC's parent company, reported that a high-ranking official in charge of logistics for the China Coast Guard had visited XAC to discuss the acquisition of the aircraft.
Images recently posted on Chinese online forums show that the platform, which has been referred to in other Chinese media articles as the MA60H, has an optical surveillance system under the nose and a surveillance radar mounted under the fuselage.
To extend its range the aircraft features auxiliary fuel tanks scabbed to the fuselage sides and has a pylon under each wing that can carry additional fuel tanks.
The aircraft does not appear to be as heavily armed as an earlier MPA concept revealed at the 2000 Airshow China exhibition, which would have carried torpedoes and sonobouys for anti-submarine warfare.