That's not going to happen with all those foreign (American) made components on that plane. It will be the Y-20 that's going to be used for special mission purposes.
I wonder why the US uses converted passenger planes for their special purpose planes and not their strategic airlift like the C-17 Globemaster III. I think China will follow the Russian route and use their strategic airlift for their special purpose planes like tankers and AWAC's.
First Franklin when the US built the E3, The C17 did not exist yet. C17 is actually a very new bird it's first flights date to the early 1990's Where E3 dates to the 1970's.
But this next part is the bing point.
The Main reason why the Us chose to Integrate using Commercial airliner hulls was Availability of parts and hulls. The Same was the Reason the Russians went with IL76 based platforms.
The strategic lifter of the Time E3 was designed was the C141 but Only 280 or so of those were built and they were needed for strategic lift so pulling Those hulls for AEW roles would have been a waste. by contrast Boeing 707 Were Plentiful a little over a thousand were built, Spare Parts could be easily gotten from any Airline and the USAF had been using them as C135s since the 1950's And in the 1960s the USAF had successfully used them for the basis of the KC135 and by 1958 for Air force one duties.
farther if you track back before that the Predecessor to the E3 was based on the Lockheed Super constellation a Turboprop Commercial liner.
On the Other side of the Iron Curtin
Interestingly the Russian AEW program began with trials on a modified Tu95 bomber, but then moved to TU116 a Prototype Airliner and then settled on the TU114 Airliner Based on the Tu95 bomber.
There Production AEW was the Tu126 based on the TU114 Airliner.
It was not until the 1970's that the Russians moved to the IL76 hull for there A50.
However over 40 A50's were built and over 960 Il76 were built making for a plentiful supply chain,
Additionally Where Boeing 707's were widely available Russian civilian Airliners were small batch production. the Russian equivalent to the 707, the IL62 had less than 300 built. even into the late 80's when the Russians really built larger airliners the numbers were in the double digits so they never really had a major Airliner of the class to convert, but they had plentiful Strategic lifters.
Look around at other nations who have since built AEW and special mission birds other then the E2 Which has the special needs of carrier operations. Japan ordered There E767 because they wanted E3 but there were no spare 707 hulls on hand so they went with a airline Boeing had on hand. India used IL76 because they could get the hulls easily and could work the conversion quickly based on the A50, but there follow on is based on the ERJ145 buisness Jet. Australia, south Korea and Turkey used the 737 for there E7, The Swedish designed the S 100B Argus based on a Saab 340 passenger turboprop Pakistan was eyeing the stretched version of the Saab 340 the Saab 2000 with a Erieye radar system and Embrar is selling more ERJ145s with Radars as the E99
Why? Plentiful hulls spare parts and ease of procurement.
Furthermore the PLA has been working on use of smaller Special mission aircraft, yes they have 5 KJ2000 and a unknown number of KJ3000 but they also have the smaller AEW platforms in testing based on Y8 and Y9 Aircraft.
Then start factoring in.
Converting a passenger jet for special purpose instead of a military transport has advantages.
First is that passengers jets are very quiet compare with military transport jets. This is very important for the operators handling the sensor consoles.
Then there is the pressurised cabins. Transport jets need extensive modification to fully pressurise the whole aircraft by sealing off the ramp and add new pressure bulkhead at the tail section. This is for the comfort of console operators who need to work long hours, to ensure they are alert and prevent fatigue.
Now For the C919 vs Y20, How many are to be built? Comac has a solid 500+ units on order Y20? estimates vary there was a report that the
's Center for Economic Research recommended 400 units which by the Way would out number the number of C17 built well others call for a more conservative 50-100 units and some are not even sure Y20 is actually any where near production ready as it seems to be missing some features found on others in it's class like Blown Flaps and Winglets, but either way The C919 would be more plentiful.
As to Foreign parts The PLA already uses the B737 in a military role with no issue, and having such a large pool of spare parts already on hand in need to maintain the 500 C919s means there should be little issue in finding spares. additionally any tech in sensitive areas would likely be replaced with Indigenous Tech.
So in the end Franklin there is only one Factor I feel your argument has in it's favor.
"like tankers" C919 is roughly equal to the AB310 If you're Tanking Jets it's kinda on the Small side, The KC 135 is bigger than the Comac in wingspan and length and can carry a larger fuel load it can carry about 200,000 lb of Fuel . The IL78 can pack in 220,462 lbs of fuel. The A310MRTT packs in just short of 62,000 lb of fuel which is not that impressive I mean a KC130J can pack 45,000 lb of Fuel. So Yeah I just cant see a KC919. better to wait for Y20 or C929 or just keep Il78.
