【Military Second Plane】Author: Lele

After the emergence of "Air警-3000" at the end of last year, the outside world realized that after the maturity of the Y-20B, the development of China's large early warning aircraft would no longer be hindered. However, the recent appearance of a suspected second prototype of "Air警-3000" indicates that the development speed of "Air警-3000" and the urgent needs of the air force far exceed external expectations.

▲The value of the Y-20B is immeasurable

In December 2024, in the context where the J-36 and J-50 both made their debut, "Air警-3000" quietly appeared. Based on the blurry information available, people determined that this was a large early warning platform that broke through the fourth-generation technology threshold. Because at that time, the US E-7A and Russia's A-100 project were still operating, so the outside world once called the three the global top three early warning aircraft, destined to compete in the future. No one expected that the A-100 announced its cancellation in the spring of this year, followed by the US Department of Defense announcing the abandonment of the procurement of E-7A, but the US Air Force refused to accept it, resulting in a mess between the two sides, with no exact news yet. It means that "Air警-3000" is still in flight testing, while the two most threatening opponents have already fallen.

▲The cancellation of the A-100 mainly due to the failure to mature technologically

However, the successive withdrawal of the US and Russia from large early warning aircraft has also triggered concerns about the "early warning aircraft falling behind the times". Whether the "Air警-3000" can continue to serve as the main aerial force under the circumstances of the soaring range of air-to-air missiles and the intensifying wave of informatization remains unknown. In addition, the US Department of Defense's "Space Early Warning" system seems to be very sci-fi and has the potential to replace expensive and fragile early warning aircraft. But according to the practical experience of the India-Pakistan air battle in May and some information displayed by the Chinese Air Force, the "Air警-3000" is not outdated. On the contrary, the importance of early warning aircraft will only increase further. E-7A and A-100 were abandoned because of this.

▲The engagement distance of high-end air combat is getting increasingly distant

The "AAM-15E" shocked the world with a stunning strike in South Asia, and the mode of its launch, which was guided by the ZDK-03 throughout and adjusted through a bidirectional data link, all rely on the early warning aircraft to complete. The traditional mode of launching an air-to-air missile from a carrier aircraft and opening the onboard radar for guidance has been discarded because it easily exposes the carrier aircraft's position, inviting attacks from opponents. In addition, as the range of air-to-air missiles continues to extend to 200 kilometers, even 300 kilometers, the demand for data links and information support will only increase, while the hardware space of fighter jet radars has a natural limit, making it difficult to support such intensity of ultra-long-range combat.

▲Even the radar size of heavy fighters is limited

The most important thing is that the large-scale application of unmanned wingmen has become inevitable, requiring the command system to assist in processing exponentially increasing data. Although the "space early warning" system sounds good, under current technological levels, its response and processing speed are difficult to reach the ideal level, and large early warning aircraft still have irreplaceable effects. "Air警-3000" is an advanced command platform developed by China for the use scenarios of fifth-generation, even sixth-generation fighter jets, and its value is immeasurable. Before that, E-7A and A-100 had not realized this trend, and their performance planning was seriously insufficient, making them unable to compete against the true fourth-generation "Air警-3000", so their cancellation was deserved.

▲E-7A, even after improvements, is only at the level of the third generation's end

In the sequence of domestically developed fighter jets, there was once a J-12 fighter that took ten years to develop and test, but was canceled just before its service due to being incompatible with the demands of the era. As an export model, the US military did not invest much resources into the E-7A, and given that its performance was far inferior to the "Air警-3000", the psychological pressure to give up was not great. The only problem is that after abandoning the E-7A, the US military has not reached a conclusion on whether to choose the E-2D next, or to heavily invest in the "space early warning" system, or to start from scratch to develop a new early warning aircraft. However, the "Air警-3000" has already built a second prototype, and is expected to be commissioned by 2027, attempting to command the J-20S in combat, truly entering the fifth-generation half-era.

▲The era of the E-3 has ended

Only 20 years ago, the US E-3A was dominant, towering over other early warning aircraft globally. However, after the failure of the famous E-10 project, the US early warning aircraft fell into a strange stagnation state, as if everyone believed that the E-3 series would remain leading forever. The result was that when "Air警-3000" emerged, the US military became completely panicked, fighting among themselves, and regardless of the final outcome, the time wasted during this period was an excellent opportunity for the Chinese Air Force to develop.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7536862180516315700/

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