E-2 was never part if the discussion because liaoning would never hold such aircraft anyway.
If bringing in E-2 is meant to demonstrate how inferior rotary winged AEW are, I have no problem. But using that to argue that fixed wing fighters can somehow supplement a helicopter based AEW doesn't make sense, because the whole point of AEW(&C) is wide area surveillance and control of multiple aircraft or other assets which a twin seater J-15 simply won't be able to do as well as a Z-8AEW because it lacks a 360 radar and it lacks the more powerful processing capability that the helicopters own crew offers.
Would j-15 perform CAP with active radars? Yes. Will it be able to datalink with other assets to some degree and share information? Yes. Does it have the ability to disseminate the data among a wide variety of assets and control multiple other aircraft? Doubtful. There is a further argument that Liaoning's limited fighter wing should be used for fighter tasks rather than struggling with AEW which Z-8AEW or ka-31 is better equipped for. And again E-2 doesn't figure into this because even though fixed wing AEW is better than rotary, assigning fighters with no modification to act as AEW doesn't compensate for any of the disadvantages rotary AEW has.
Further doubts regarding Ka-31 and Z-8AEW and their human crew capacity can be somewhat put to rest by comparing them with other similar systems like the UKs sea king AEW and the French horizon battlefield helicopter.
But even pretending rotary wing aircraft have a very small crew (I believe e-2 only has three consoles or somehong, how many can you fit in a Z-8?), J-15s still lack te radar of dedicated AEW choppers which are both more powerful, and can reliably survey 360 degrees without resorting to haphazard maneuvers to turn their nose everywhere like j-15 or any other fighter
My main point is that J-15 can be used in an AEW role for a CVBG, but the capability it provides over Z-8AEW or Ka-31 is doubtful, and considering the relatively small airwing of fighters on liaoning in the first place, would it really be wise assigning J-15s on an errant orbit around your fleet to have their radar cover all 360. (Not very efficient and won't have by the moment coverage either), meaning you are drawing fighters away from CAP or strike sorties?
Also, just how inferior are rotary wing AEW to fixed wing in terms of range and endurance? No doubt they are inferior in terms of altitude and speed, but it would be interesting to see what the differential is in the other two.
Also the processing and crew on Z-8AEW compared to E-2 would be interesting to note too.
Let's do a thought experiment use the following basic assumptions:
E-2 Endurance: 6-8 hours, cruising speed: 250 Knots, radar range: 250NM
Ka-31 endurance: 3 hours, cruising speed: 110 knots, radar range: 200NM
J-15 endurance: 5 hours, cruising speed: 450 knots, radar range 150NM.
If a E-2 take one hour each to fly to and back from patrol station, then it can establish a patrol station 250 NM from the carrier along the threat axis, providing AEW coverage out to 500NM, and remain on station for 4 hours at least.
If a Ka-31 take one hour each to fly to and back from patrol station, then it can establish a patrol station only 110 NM from the carrier along the threat axis, providing AEW coverage out to only 310 NM, and remain on station for only 1 hour.
2 E-2, 1 on station, 1 in transit or refueling, can sustain this single axis coverage for as long as neither aircraft breaks down. 3 E-2s, 2 on station, 1 in transit or refueling, can sustain this kind of coverage along
2 different threat axis, with coverage out to 500NM on each axis. A US carrier has 4 E-2, and can reasonably expect to maintain this dual axis coverage for some time due to redundancy.
It takes 3 Ka-31, 1 on station, 1 in transit, and 1 refueling, just to sustain continuous 24 hour coverage on only 1 threat axis, with maximum coverage of only 310 NM. A chinese carrier needs 4 Ka-31 to cover just one threat axis with any redundancy, and would need 7-8 Ka-31 to mimic the dual axis coverage afforded by the AEW assets on one US carrier, then only provide a coverage range ~60% of that procided by the E-2.
Now Let's say the Chinese carrier has 4 two seat J-15. A J-15 can cruise out to near the maximum coverage range of Ka-31 in under 45 minutes, extend the radar coverage out to 470 NM, and loiter there for 3 hours. 2 J-15s, 1 on station, 1 in transit or refueling, can sustain this coverage along one exist, 4 J-15 can in fact provide this coverage along 2 different axis, albeit without reserve. Admittedly the coverage provided by the J-15 isn't likely to be of the same quality as that provided by a real AEW radar set on a real AEW asset, but it is something, possibly the majority, at least along the direction of the nose of the J-15, and maybe 45 degrees to either side, which is not to be dismissed.
So I hope you cna see how J-15 can be used to partially bridge the gap between AEW coverage available to majority of the world's carriers, and that which can be provided by the Ka-31s.
