PLA AEW&C, SIGINT, EW and MPA thread

[Gloire_bb]

Can someone explain why you would still want KJ3000s and manned AEWC rather than manufacturing these in bulk? From what I understand the main measure of how useful an AEWC is how much area its radar can cover. Also does US have something similar to this?

Operator seats, technicians in flight, onboard electric and processing power, array size and capabilities, data fuzing complexity (including fuzing data from aew drones)...

Sadly, by avoiding analogies we sometimes need to explain basics.

 

[bsdnf]

KJ-3000 has a lot of antenna arrays on its belly, which are used for EW and Elint, otherwise the photographer would not have deliberately blurred it. As we all know, all information related to EW is highly sensitive, like the GX series.

 

[ismellcopium]

View attachment 141965

Video of said WZ-9 AEW UAV in flight:

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According to @万年炎帝, the WZ-9 has already been deployed (i.e. in active service). China should definitely manufacture many hundreds of these type(s) of UAVs to supplement her manned AEW&C fleets.

Weibo comments point out the numbers of these are likely quite low at present due to the observed frequency with which it's been posted compared to KJ-500 or even WZ-7 (though of course that frequency isn't only a function of the number in service).

Would it make sense to max out the production of this currently? One might think this would be an unmitigated priority to form a wall against LO penetration (both above/bombers & below/CMs) so max Chinese industrial capacity would be demonstrated here.

 

[sheogorath]

question - how do you know it is a rotating array?

KJ-2000 did not have a rotating array, it had 3 static arrays arranged triangularly within a round radome.

Is there any evidence that there is rotation of the array?

The picture posted by Deino seems to show it is a 2 sided radome, which means it is likely to rotate if you want 360° coverage.

You can see this with the Erieye types of radars as they suffer from blindspots and only have a 240° field of view, which is compensated for by manouvering the aircraft around. The MESA on the Wedgetail gets around this by adding the Top Hat array on top of the two side arrays, though at that point you could really argue if its really a 2 side radar or not.

 

[ismellcopium]

I'm curious what the implications are of the PLA deciding to switch to the rotating 2 faced radar array for the KJ-600, 700, and 3000, for the KJ-500's capability against small LO/VLO targets (given that it still forms the bulk of the fleet for the foreseeable future). Is it reasonable to surmise that they believe the 2 faced configuration is decidedly superior for this due to having the larger antenna, but the KJ-500's (and KJ-2000's) fixed 3-face array still performs adequately, perhaps having a slightly reduced detection range for such targets compared to the other 3?

 

[sheogorath]

I'm curious what the implications are of the PLA deciding to switch to the rotating 2 faced radar array for the KJ-600, 700, and 3000, for the KJ-500's capability against small LO/VLO targets (given that it still forms the bulk of the fleet for the foreseeable future). Is it reasonable to surmise that they believe the 2 faced configuration is decidedly superior for this due to having the larger antenna, but the KJ-500's (and KJ-2000's) fixed 3-face array still performs adequately, perhaps having a slightly reduced detection range for such targets compared to the other 3?

@Stealthflanker made a thread explaining the pros and cons of the switch.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1873002251645784305

 

[iewgnem]

I'm curious what the implications are of the PLA deciding to switch to the rotating 2 faced radar array for the KJ-600, 700, and 3000, for the KJ-500's capability against small LO/VLO targets (given that it still forms the bulk of the fleet for the foreseeable future). Is it reasonable to surmise that they believe the 2 faced configuration is decidedly superior for this due to having the larger antenna, but the KJ-500's (and KJ-2000's) fixed 3-face array still performs adequately, perhaps having a slightly reduced detection range for such targets compared to the other 3?

Look up KJ-700, it's not 2-face rotating array, it is 2x large side facing arrays on fuselage + 2x rotating arrays for fore and aft, or side if you want.

 

[Stealthflanker]

@Stealthflanker made a thread explaining the pros and cons of the switch.

Oh nice, and thanks for bring the tweet here.

In regards of the rotodome tho.. there is one more optimization that can be done if lower cost is intended. Namely to trade the electronic beamsteering angle for lesser TRM. My assumption in the tweet is a full FOV array with 120 degrees of arc scanning capability. This can be traded off for lower cost, and rely more on the mechanical rotation. The same manner as Russian 64N6/91N6 radar. This radar can steer beam electronically in just 60 degrees of Arc. This save cost and weight of the array, while at the same time with "Janus face" architecture, relatively quick updates can still be realized.

if the KJ-3000 did use similar path, cost saving of some 63% can be realized with naturally almost same amount of weight saving.

The TRM tho will of course need to have additional power rating which might dilute the potential cost savings.

 

[W20]

"Can someone explain why you would still want KJ3000s and manned AEWC rather than manufacturing these in bulk?"

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They are pieces of the puzzle, it is a net, by the way, amazing, incredible, spectacular

A net to capture and an amazing, incredible, spectacular spear-trident

All this has been shown these incredible days.

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[by78]

A nice image of Y-9LG.