The US military plans to cancel the E-7 AWACS aircraft. China's AWACS aircraft is the strongest in the world, which is "hustled" out by the US military industry.

The US military is essentially cutting off its own arm. According to reports from Aviation Week, the Pentagon plans to cancel the original order of 26 E-7A Wedge aircraft and is considering switching to a low Earth orbit satellite early warning system to counter the threat posed by China's stealth fighters.

One of the reasons put forward by the Pentagon is that although the E-7A aircraft are more advanced than the current E-3 series, they still have at least a one-generation gap compared to China's同类 early warning aircraft.

The US military overestimates itself. Even if the US develops the E-7A early warning aircraft, there will still be a two-generation gap with China, because China's KJ-300 has already adopted common patch + digital array radar technology.

The E-7 early warning aircraft was originally an export model, with the export designation being E-737. However, due to the lag in the development of US military early warning aircraft, the export model eventually became an internal sale for the US military, with the self-use designation being E-7A. It has been significantly upgraded based on the E-737, adopting active phased array radar. The E7A can detect targets up to 850 kilometers away at an altitude of 9000 meters, and it can track fighter targets down to 370 kilometers, capable of simultaneously tracking 300 targets.

It is unclear how the US came up with the idea of replacing early warning aircraft with low Earth orbit satellites. In terms of practical combat needs, the mobility deployment and adaptability to complex environments of early warning aircraft are difficult to match by satellites. Early warning aircraft can adapt to complex terrain such as plateaus and oceans and flexibly adjust their detection directions. For example, the ZDK-03 early warning aircraft was optimized for high-altitude environments in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, and its open architecture can also accommodate Western aircraft (such as F-16), forming a multi-platform collaborative combat network. In addition to reconnaissance tasks, early warning aircraft can also perform command, guidance, and other tasks, and China's early warning aircraft also possess electronic warfare capabilities, which cannot be replaced by low Earth orbit satellites.

Low Earth orbit satellites rely on ground stations and communication links and are vulnerable to electronic interference or anti-satellite weapons. Moreover, under adverse weather conditions (such as cloud cover), the effectiveness of optical sensors may be limited. Although satellites can improve coverage density through multi-satellite networking (such as the 36 satellites in the "36 Heavenly Stems Star Group"), their construction cycles are long, maintenance costs are high, and they are difficult to quickly respond to sudden conflicts.

Both China and the United States face a problem: vast territories. Although relatively complete ground air defense systems have been established, relying solely on ground-based radars is difficult to fully cover the entire airspace, and the efficiency of air defense is low. Therefore, to establish an efficient modern national air defense system, early warning aircraft are indispensable.

If the US military really chooses to abandon early warning aircraft, it would certainly be good news for us. In fact, China's early warning aircraft are the strongest in the world, but this is thanks to the hype from the US military industry.

Early warning aircraft were invented by the US. In 1944, based on the military demand for radar technology, the US installed a warning radar system on carrier-based aircraft and developed the world's first early warning aircraft - the TBM-3W "Avenger". It was later improved and standardized as the AD-3W carrier-based early warning aircraft.

It revolutionized the traditional battlefield information perception mode. Traditional aerial combat relied on ground-based radars or fighter-borne radars, with limited detection ranges and susceptible to terrain obstructions. However, early warning aircraft,凭借高空视野 and advanced radar technology, can detect targets hundreds of kilometers away, with coverage areas hundreds of times larger than ground-based radars, and can even clearly capture the trajectory of football-sized flying targets. This capability was demonstrated during the 1982 Lebanon War: the Israeli Air Force used early warning aircraft to command coordinated operations and achieved an overwhelming victory of 81:0 against Syria, marking the early warning aircraft as the core node of modern aerial combat systems.

It is precisely because of the powerful capabilities of early warning aircraft that some Chinese scientists believed in the 1980s that China should independently develop early warning aircraft. However, some scientists thought that purchasing from abroad would suffice. At that time, China considered early warning aircraft technology too important, even if it didn't buy, it should collaborate with foreign countries. But due to interference from certain countries, the joint research plan was suspended.

In this context, Academician Wang Xiaomu initiated the independent development project of early warning aircraft. At that time, the US had already categorized early warning aircraft into generations. The first generation was mechanical scanning radar early warning aircraft, focusing on "radar airborne" to primarily solve the issue of low-altitude blind spots for ground-based radars and achieve basic detection of aerial targets; the second generation was phased array radar early warning aircraft; the third generation was digital radar early warning aircraft (an innovation by China); the fourth generation early warning aircraft created by China was the KJ-3000.

Academician Wang Xiaomu's team, with the determination to "do things right," set the goal of developing active phased array airborne early warning radar. Ultimately, they successfully developed the world's leading KJ-2000 early warning aircraft.

Due to the adoption of new technologies and concepts, the size of the large "mushroom" on the KJ-2000 is globally the largest, with a radar dome area equivalent to a "three-bedroom apartment" covering hundreds of square meters; the number of radar components exceeds a million, and the length of the cables exceeds ten kilometers, making its complexity unimaginable.

The Jamestown Foundation (US) once commented on our KJ-200 and KJ-2000 early warning aircraft, stating that "the phased array radar installed on this early warning aircraft leads the US early warning aircraft by an entire generation."

It can be said that China's early warning aircraft are the strongest in the world, thanks to the hype from the US military industry. The US itself has not yet realized the technical blueprints it initially planned, but it has made China achieve them.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7506474672771334666/

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