After being accused of copying the design and expertise of American stealth fighter jets just like the F-22 and F-35, US consultants have alleged that the Chinese twin-propeller, quad-tail, high-wing airborne early warning management plane is a replica of US Navy’s plane carrier-launched E-2D Hawkeye.
The Xi’an KJ-600 is designed to be deployed on Type 003 plane carriers and presumably on the Type 004 plane carriers of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. As of now, there is just one fixed-wing carrier-based AEWC in service on the planet, the E-2 household, developed by the US firm Northrop Grumman.
China’s growth of the KJ-600 by Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation as an plane carrier-launched Airborne Early Warning and Control system (AEW&C) is seen as an act of “copy-cat.”
The KJ-600 first flew in mid-2020.
The Chinese plane encompasses a high-straight wing and is surmised to be powered by a pair of WJ-6 turboprop engines. It sports activities a quad-fin tailplane, tricycle gear, and a big dorsal rotodome suspected to be fitted with an AESA-type system.
In 2023, six KJ-600 prototypes had been in numerous levels of testing. So far, there isn’t a proof that the plane has undergone catapult launch or arrested restoration on the land-based catapult take a look at website on the PLA-Navy Carrier Aviation Test and Training Base.
While nobody denies the potential of the testing being performed, the plane is on the verge of low-rate preliminary manufacturing. The timeline is congruous with the anticipated sea trials of the Fujian plane provider (Type 003).
Fixed-wing carrier-borne AEW&C plane are essential for any navy searching for a strong and succesful provider air wing. They improve a provider group’s offensive and defensive capabilities, situational consciousness, and network-centric warfare. The KJ-600, as soon as inducted, will likely be a big asset for China’s naval aviation.
Kris Osborn, the President of Warrior Maven and a former Highly Qualified Expert on the Pentagon, argues: “In recent years, the People’s Liberation Army – Navy and Air Force have been maturing similar “Hawkeye-like” surveillance and warning planes such because the KJ-200 and KJ-500 plane. These efforts point out a considerably clear or observable PLA effort to easily “replicate” “copy” or recreate the profitable US Navy E-2D Hawkeye.”
PLA’s efforts to “replicate” or “hijack” US platforms and applied sciences have been a supply of headache for Pentagon and American weapons builders. In recent years, the Chinese forces have additionally been emulating ways, methods, and doctrinal approaches on how finest to combine, apply, and deploy rising applied sciences.
Many observers have famous the stark resemblance that the FC-31 has with the American F-35. The flat tail and twin engines of FC-31 appear to be derived from the F-22, and the entrance finish resembles the F-35.
This doesn’t come as a shock as a 2014 “U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission” Congressional report cited a Defense Science Board discovering that Chinese cyber-attacks have siphoned off essential specs and technical particulars of a spread of US weapons programs—together with the F-35.
Similarities between the Chinese KJ-600 and American E-2D Hawkeye
The Chinese KJ-600 and the US Navy E-2D Hawkeye are each AEW&C. The KJ-600 is a medium-sized early warning plane with two engines. Its main position is surveillance, risk detection, and monitoring.
The KJ-600 shares similarities with the US Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye collection. The Chinese platform goals to attain multi-domain, multi-platform joint connectivity, knowledge transmission, and concentrating on.
The US consultants really feel the PLA has been maturing surveillance planes just like the KJ-600 and is replicating the profitable options of the E-2D Hawkeye, the American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical AEW plane.
The E-2 Hawkeye has the longest manufacturing run of any carrier-based plane, constantly producing variants since 1960. It changed the sooner piston-engine E-1 Tracer. The E-2 has earned monikers like “Super Fudd” and “Hummer” for its distinctive turboprop engine sounds.
The Hawkeye, a surveillance plane, may also function a management and command middle by networking with fighter jets, warships, drones, and even satellites in close to real-time to attract a real-time battleground image.
The consultants really feel that the PLA is making an attempt to reflect the US ways to satisfy the problem that American forces pose. Emulating the US Navy, the PLA-Navy is integrating the KJ-600 with fighter jets. Recently, in an essay revealed within the Chinese-government-backed Global Times newspaper, China demonstrated the KJ-600’s functionality to community with the J-15 carrier-launched fighter jet.
“During the drills, the early warning aircraft formed a communications network and established an information chain, detected and located target radiation sources, and commanded and guided the fighter jets to conduct attacks against targets at sea,” the Global Times states.
“The sensitivity, range, and fidelity of the PLA-Navy sensing, radar, and surveillance may or may not rival that of an upgraded US Navy Hawkeye, yet there does appear to be a PLA effort to replicate and copy-cat the US Navy in terms of design specs, technological configuration and concepts of operation,” Osborn added.
- Ritu Sharma has been a journalist for over a decade, writing on protection, overseas affairs, and nuclear expertise.
- She could be reached at ritu.sharma (at) mail.com
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