PLA AEW&C, SIGINT, EW and MPA thread
- Thread starter Sczepan
- Start date
Actually I'm confused!
Allegedly "At a certain station of the Northern Naval Air Force, the fighters were holding guns and pointing them into the sky" but this KJ-500H does not look like a regular one!
Is this actually real, or are the attempts to fool us getting crazier?
(Image via @拓跋尊 from Weibo)
Allegedly "At a certain station of the Northern Naval Air Force, the fighters were holding guns and pointing them into the sky" but this KJ-500H does not look like a regular one!
Is this actually real, or are the attempts to fool us getting crazier?
(Image via @拓跋尊 from Weibo)
Apparently this is indeed real. @沉默的山羊 on Weibo replied "Seen for the first time" (首见), while @Oneninety on Weibo replied "Finally..." (终于 ...).
According to @斯文的土匪--- on Weibo who quote-posted the original post (which is also the first person to post the satellite photograph of a certain AEW&C aircraft radome testing facility some months ago), this is the brand-new KJ-700.
Apart from the odd-shaped nose, also notice the rotodome with an additional unknown dome-shaped structure on top.
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Wow! IMO it looks almost like an MLU to transform the baseline KJ-500H AEW to a multi-role ISR type?
Unsure, but possible. Though I won't rule out newly-built (if not recently-built) AEW&C airframes based on the Y-9 are already fresh KJ-700s.
Another thing to note is the colour stripe on the rotodome, which looks similar to the rotodome placed on the right side rooftop in the testing facility as shown in the 1st photo below (though this may not be directly related).
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Additional info by @052D成都舰 and @万年炎帝 on Weibo respectively, roughly translated:
Also can they just puh-leaseeeeeee add refueling probes to every one of these KJ-700s?
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Wasn't that already present on the K-500 rotodome?
I didn't notice much at first, thought it looked different than those on the KJ-500. Thanks for the heads-up.
So it has an electro-optical system? An IRST on steroids??
@万年炎帝 has deleted his post on Weibo, unfortunately. The original post by @拓跋尊 on Weibo has also been made "limited-visibility". Looks like someone from the higher ups don't like to see that photo being made public.
In the meantime, based on what can be scouted so far, quite likely yes, i.e. the KJ-700 is equipped with a large EO (if not EO/IR) module, in addition to its AESA radar array in its rotodome, hence the dual-mode quote.
Further verification is needed, of course.
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