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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Chinese indigineous AWACS means PLAAF no longer a joke |
| 2010-08-16 |
| The recent deployment of China's first four indigenous KJ-2000 AWACS aircraft marks an important milestone in the PLA Air Force's long march from being a 'numbers intensive' low technology force, to a much more modern high technology one. So, discard your old, dated ideas about masses of MiG-21s rising to the skies only to get shot down by AMRAAM, ok guys? More fundamentally, though, the AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) extends China's deep and broad network of air defence Command Control Communications Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems into a key airborne area. In doing so, China is now acquiring the radar and passive early warning and air defence command, control and communications it needs to counter foreign fighters and cruise missiles. Yet despite the fact that this system employs radar technology two generations ahead of that used by the US Air Force's E-3C AWACS—generally seen as a benchmark by the rest of the world—the deployment of China's new aircraft elicited almost no response from Washington. The airborne C3ISR segment has also seen investment, with three concurrent programmes to develop AWACS/AEW&C capabilities. Following the abortive KJ-1 effort, the PLA invested in developing a conventional system carried by the Y-8. This system was supplanted by the KJ-200, which uses electronically steered active phased array radar technology that's two generations ahead of the mechanically steered technology used by the US. I'm sure Boeing will step right up to the plate with a new AWACS that costs far too much and doesn't work. The much larger KJ-2000 AWACS, which also uses active phased array radar, is directly modeled on Israel's A-50I and Elta Phalcon radar. The PLA had actually negotiated the purchase of the A-50I, only to have the Clinton administration block the sale, resulting in an acrimonious war of words. As a consequence, the Chinese made a national commitment to build their own—resulting a decade later in the recently deployed milestone of the KJ-2000. Yeah, I remember that one. Thanks a lot, Israel. It's funny how the US-Israel alliance benefits Israel and it's never time for Uncle Sam to get a benefit. All this means that China is deploying a modern, high technology air defence system based largely on the same or more advanced basic technologies used by the US, EU and Russia in their systems. Once fully deployed and matured, this system will be effectively impregnable to regional air forces, and largely impregnable to US naval air power, itself the victim of chronic underinvestment. Indeed, the technology being deployed in strength by the PLA is so sophisticated that only the small planned inventory of US Air Force B-2A Spirit and F-22 Raptor aircraft will be capable of confidently penetrating a post-2015 PLA air defence network. It doesn't matter anyway, if there is ever a shooting war between China and America, the first thing that happens will be all our computers stop working, and the sneak attack will make Pearl Harbor look like the Battle of Barking Creek. |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #5 The bastard Clinton may have blocked this radar, but he allowed the sale of satellite and rocket technologies. When are administrations going to take China seriously? Just because we aren't actively fighting them like certain cultures, doesn't me you can stick your head in the sand. |
| Posted by: miscellaneous 2010-08-16 20:32 |
| #4 This is a propaganda piece : the Chinese have not shot 2 full generations ahead of the US in AWACS. They still have been trying to get the Russians to sell them the Russian AWACS and the Russians refused. Remember, this is a country that is still having problems building decent jet fighter engines; the Chinese have a good rocketry program that still has not developed into a full-blown ICBM program, they have less than 20 ICBMs that can hit the West Coast of the US. Besides which, they only have a few hundred aircraft of recent vintage that qualify as more than manned aerial targets in a shooting war against Western fighters like F/A-18s, F-16s, F-15s, F-2s, Rafaels, or Tornados. |
| Posted by: Shieldwolf 2010-08-16 19:07 |
| #3 Actually, he was an Indian-born retirement age ex-contractor (and US citizen) who has spent most of his life stateside. IMHO, they should have given him a pension once his work on those sensitive projects was done, if only to give him a positive incentive to keep his lips sealed. Penny-wise, pound-foolish... |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2010-08-16 14:32 |
| #2 There was an article here just the other day about how some Indian engineer spilled the beans on a secret that would probably make the B-2 and F-22 not nearly so stealthy. He probably got paid $1000 to do it, I'd bet. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-08-16 13:49 |
| #1 There's a reason for "almost no response from Washington": http://defensetech.org/2010/08/11/chinas-new-eyes-in-the-skies/ Something to be taken seriously? Yes. Something that will send the USAF fleeing from the skies in defeat? Not yet. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2010-08-16 13:17 |