The aerial refueling of the E-2D is essentially a gimmick and has very little practical value. Although the U.S. Navy claims that the E-2D can extend its endurance from 4 hours to 8 hours through aerial refueling, in reality, the risk factor of soft-hose refueling is extremely high because the refueling hose is very susceptible to the influence of the E-2D's propellers. If an accident occurs, the E-2D would be destroyed and the crew would be killed. Therefore, the U.S. Navy has never dared to perform soft-hose refueling on the E-2D. Although the U.S. Navy later came up with hard-hose refueling, this method is also not applicable.
Therefore, the U.S. Navy is basically giving up now, and can only solve the problem by carrying more E-2D aircraft. For the E-2D, aerial refueling is too risky to be controlled.
Therefore, for the KJ-600, it is better to focus on upgrading the engine rather than researching aerial refueling. The goal should be to make the engine more powerful and more fuel-efficient. Of course, increasing the number of KJ-600s can also solve the problem of 24-hour uninterrupted aerial surveillance.
In addition, it is worth noting that due to the advanced large phased array radar installed on the island of the Fujian ship, even without the KJ-600, the Fujian ship itself has strong air situation awareness capabilities. This is much stronger than the Nimitz-class and Ford-class aircraft carriers of the U.S. Navy.
This is because neither the Nimitz-class nor the Ford-class have high radar configurations on their islands. After all, the U.S. Navy never considered using aircraft carriers to perform the role of early warning aircraft from the beginning.
But the Fujian ship obviously made the worst preparations from the start!
Original source: www.toutiao.com/article/1844159744363546/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.