KJ-600 first building carrier-borne early-warning plane.
KJ-600 would be fitted an advanced active electronically scanned
array, or AESA, radar which could enable it to spot stealth aircraft
such as US F-22s and F-35s.
Beijing-based military expert Li Jie said the new surveillance plane could also become a command centre in the air.
“AESA can detect stealth fighters at a very long range,” Li said.
US-based military website Eastern Arsenal reported last year that the
KJ-600 was being built by Xi’an Aircraft Corporation, weighed 25-30
tonnes, was powered by twin turboprop engines, and had a large AESA
radar on its fuselage.
AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar, which emits
separate radio waves on different frequencies, on Navy ships. By rapidly
changing frequencies, the radar is more difficult to fool. The system
are apparently capable of locating a stealth aircraft within 220 miles.
“It is the physics of longer wavelength and resonance that enables VHF and UHF radar to detect stealth aircraft,” Westra wrote in his article, titled “Radar vs. Stealth.”
operate
at frequencies between 300 MHz and one GHz, which results in
wavelengths that are between 10 centimeters and one meter long.
Typically, due to the physical characteristics of fighter-sized stealth
aircraft, they must be optimized to defeat higher frequencies in the Ka,
Ku, X, C and parts of the S-bands.
There is a resonance effect that occurs when a feature on an
aircraft — such as a tail-fin tip — is less than eight times the size of
a particular frequency wavelength. That omnidirectional resonance
effect produces a “step change” in an aircraft’s radar cross-section.
Effectively, what that means is that small stealth aircraft that do
not have the size or weight allowances for two feet or more of radar
absorbent material coatings on every surface are forced to make trades
as to which frequency bands they are optimized for.
E-2 Hawkeye.
Military analysts said photographs of the KJ-600 suggested it was
very similar to the E-2 Hawkeye, the US’ all-weather, carrier-capable
tactical airborne early-warning aircraft.
Military analyst Zhou Chenming, also based in Beijing, said the
KJ-600 radar system would put the plane on a par with US early-warning
aircraft.
“The biggest advantage of the KJ-600 is it’s equipped with a more
sophisticated radar and communication system allowing it to monitor a
wider range of signals and even detect stealth fighters in a certain
angle,” Zhou said.
CCTV- Story of development Radars