India has woken up, and it is now determined to build its own airborne early warning aircraft, which is expected to reach the level of KJ-200.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) of India confirmed that India will launch the development and platform integration work for the next-generation domestically developed airborne early warning aircraft "NETRA MkII". The core systems will be installed on an Airbus A321 airframe, and it will be equipped with an active electronically scanned array radar capable of a 300-degree coverage.
This radar is developed on an indigenous platform, and it is expected to have a detection range exceeding 400 kilometers, with the ability to guide fighter jets and cooperate with long-range missiles in combat.
If DRDO can complete the entire integration and platform deployment as scheduled, the Indian Air Force will, after years of relying on Israeli and Brazilian systems, have its first medium strategic early warning capability close to self-reliance.
Different from the previous NETRA MkI, MkII will no longer rely on the Brazilian regional aircraft platform, but instead choose the A321 aircraft with a longer range and larger cabin. This change not only means that the loiter time can be extended to more than 8 hours, but also provides conditions for carrying more operators and information processing equipment.
As for the radar, although India's platform is still in the improvement stage, its high-resolution beam control capability and wide coverage angle setting have already clearly exceeded the customized version of the Phalcon system in India in the early stage.
Although it has not been publicly disclosed whether it has the capability to identify stealth targets, combining with DRDO's recent progress in radar, data link, and command and control systems, the overall combat potential of MkII has approached the initial version of China's KJ-200, and has certain capabilities for battlefield airspace control.
However, from a system perspective, India's development of airborne early warning aircraft still has obvious shortcomings.
Although the platform, radar, and part of the command and control systems have achieved domestic production, the interoperability of the combat system depends on the multi-source data links of the existing Su-30MKI and French Rafale, but the two have limited interoperability, and the ground command and control system is outdated, making it difficult for the early warning platform to truly realize the function of a combat center.
In contrast, China's KJ series has already achieved data fusion with platforms such as J-10C, J-20, and HQ-9B, and has been integrated into the Beidou and Tianlian systems to form an air-ground integrated combat network.
From this point of view, even if India makes breakthroughs in radar technology, it cannot build a similar combat system.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1842765740155971/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.