Recently, the Chinese and Russian air forces launched their eighth joint air patrol, and the bombers of the two countries directly appeared in the airspace near Alaska, the United States's doorstep, which made the United States feel like a great enemy. During the joint patrol of the Chinese and Russian air forces, the United States Air Force and the Canada Air Force respectively dispatched a number of fighters to monitor the bomber formation of the Chinese and Russian air forces. Among them, the US F-35 fighter also tried to intercept the PLA's H-6K at one time. As everyone knows, its whereabouts have long been discovered by the Air Police-500 early warning aircraft behind it.
In the PLA's air force early warning system, airborne early warning aircraft have always been the top priority. Because the early warning aircraft can not only be used as a command aircraft in wartime, but also can provide intelligence support for the fighter formation, especially the service of the Air Police-500, the combat power of the Chinese Air Force has been greatly improved. According to official information, the Air Police-500 AWACS aircraft is 34 meters long, has a maximum cruise speed of 550 km/h, and a maximum range of about 5,700 km.
Compared with traditional early warning aircraft, its biggest advantage is that it is equipped with a domestic disc-shaped three-sided array digital phased array radar. It is reported that the radar system is capable of autonomously tracking 60-100 high-speed moving targets at the same time, and the maximum detection range has reached 470 kilometers. It is precisely because it has super air detection capabilities that in this Sino-US air game, the US military's F-35 fighter thought it had taken the lead, but in fact, it was discovered by the Air Police-500 very early, and the Chinese and Russian fighters were in position in advance, so the US military did not find an opportunity to take advantage of it at all.
It can be seen from the Sino-Russian joint cruise that our large early warning aircraft can fully perform long-distance voyage missions, this is because in terms of power configuration, the Air Police-500 itself is developed using the Y-9 transport aircraft as the carrier, so the body space is abundant, and a total of 4 "turboprop-6C" turboprop engines are equipped, with a maximum output of 5100 horsepower and a maximum take-off weight of 77 tons. At the same time, our domestic turboprop-6C engine also adopts the latest centrifugal compressor system, as well as full-featured digital electronic control technology, so it is more stable and labor-saving during flight.
Judging from the relevant pictures released by the media, the Air Police-500 that accompanied the H-6K flight this time is likely to be an upgraded model. In order to further improve the comprehensive detection capability of the Air Police-500 early warning aircraft, the mainland has also equipped the aircraft with a number of radio data transmission systems to ensure that the aircraft can carry out emergency communications to the air and the ground.
Compared with the basic model, the biggest change in the upgraded version is that the antenna area on both sides of the rear fuselage is significantly larger, and the ailerons and flaps use the same wave-transmitting material as the radome. In addition, the length of the radome at the nose position has been significantly lengthened, the blade antenna of the fuselage has been significantly reduced, and the detection capabilities of the new model have been significantly enhanced by the addition of a detector under the nose.
Especially for the fifth-generation stealth fighter, the Air Police-500 early warning aircraft is equipped with a dual-band radar, the upper disc-shaped three-sided radar works in the S-band, and the radar on both sides of the rear of the fuselage, the nose and the tail part of the aircraft works in the L-band, so that the design avoids the interference of the two band radars with each other.
Of course, with the increasing number of fifth-generation fighters in service with the US military, coupled with the increasing range of air-to-air missiles, the mainland is also facing more challenges in the development and improvement of early warning aircraft. Because the radar range of the AWACS aircraft is generally four or five hundred kilometers, but the distance of locking on the stealth fighter has been attenuated to less than 200 kilometers. Therefore, the traditional early warning aircraft can no longer cope with future air battles, and the air police-500, an early warning aircraft with strong anti-stealth capabilities, is needed to deal with the threat brought by the surrounding stealth fighters.
However, the US military's strike capability outside the defense zone is getting stronger and stronger, and it has recently transformed the Standard-6 air defense missile into an air-launched missile, which can reach a range of 400 kilometers, which poses a threat to the early warning aircraft located in the rear of the air battle. Therefore, on the basis of having the Air Police-500, it is time for us to further explore and innovate, and use larger aircraft carriers such as Y-20 or C-919 as a template to create a new large special anti-stealth early warning aircraft.