PLAN Naval Helicopter & ASW Capability II
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
How many Z18F, Z18J and Z18 transport units built ? 2,2 and 2?
Wait, it's just a bar! It can't POSSIBLY provide enough resolution for early warning.Z-18 early warning helicopter at the 2017 Tianjin Helicopter Show:
Interesting to see the prototype with removed radar.
By the way, any other gems on the show?
by78
General
Ooops, I should have clarified that 1) the expo hasn't started yet; 2) I made a mistake interpreting the Chinese captioning, which merely says "warming up to the helicopter expo... don't know why this prototype was parked on a civilian airport tarmac at the time..."
So the prototype was NOT in Tianjin. In fact, had I taken note of the hilly terrain in the background, I would have known that; the expo location in Tianjin is nowhere near hills.
My bad.
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Well its frequency's unknown but on another note after some digging, it turns out there is in fact a L-band radar suitable for an AEW helicopter; which is Ka-31's E-801M . Though its a planar array and not phased but if their difference isn't too big which I'm not sure, it's definitely a more appropriate example for a L-band radar that could explain 055's bars, than Su-35's antennas.Wait, it's just a bar! It can't POSSIBLY provide enough resolution for early warning.
E-801M's detection range is partly due to its size constraint but works on a platform looking over the horizon. But how about it was mounted a ship? Most authors describing 052D's yagi refer to the Soviet 'Knife Rest' as EW in context of its operational era in the 1950s, and known/estimate detection ranges of both don't surpass Type 346. On 052D and if on 055, are low frequency radars serving a different function, or is detecting LO targets justify them being called EW radars is my question.
Also I set a list for all AEW helicopter based arrays if anyone is interested. If we're comparing Z-18's radar size to contemporaries, its possible operating closer to X-band.
asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
You cannot have enough helicopters
More the merrier
Especially if you are sailing in the sea
Helicopter carrier come on we have been waiting too long
A LHD which can lift 30 choppers would be a very powerful ASW fleet
More the merrier
Especially if you are sailing in the sea
Helicopter carrier come on we have been waiting too long
A LHD which can lift 30 choppers would be a very powerful ASW fleet
To me a 30 helicopter LHD sounds a lot just for ASW (even if "only" 20 of the helicopters are used for ASW). That's a lot of eggs in one basket and you could still only search a limited area around your ship.
I would think having more ships the size of the Hyuga class (would fit ~18 copters according to wikipedia) would be better than a smaller number of ships the size of the Izumo class (~28 copters) for ASW.
The JMSDF seems to disagree - is that because the size is needed for other uses of the ship or is my thinking about ASW LHDs mistaken ?