PLA AEW&C, SIGINT, EW and MPA thread

Bltizo said:

I'm pretty sure no more Y-8 airframes are being produced at all, and that all prior Y-8 airframe production has been converted to Y-9 airframes.

Whether they've added another Y-9 production line is another quesiton.

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Are new special mission Y-8's than rebuilds of old transport or special mission Y-8's?

14th Insistute (China's best inistitue for radar and electric warfare) has developed a new concept radar, utilizing quantum mechanicism, during test phase, the radar successfully detected objects hundreds of kilometers away.

The main advantage of this radar is it is robust to electric countermeasures/jamming and its capability to detect LO/steath objects.


Source (Chinese):

by78 said:

Continued from above...

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Again...great pics.

30472 seems to be the show off bird for the K-500. I See it all over the place.

delft said:

Are new special mission Y-8's than rebuilds of old transport or special mission Y-8's?

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I don't think there have been any new special mission Y-8s built in years... All special mission/Gaoxin aircraft built in the last few years are Y-9 airframes (converted straight from the line of course).

But back when special mission based on the Y-8 airframe were being built back up to the late 2000s, I think they were converted straight off the line, and not rebuilds of old transports.

In fact, I don't know if any Gaoxin platforms or special mission Y-8/Y-9 aircraft were rebuilds of existing transports at all.... if anything, the Air Force's demand for tactical transports means they probably wouldn't be very keen on giving them up for conversion, and also putting in orders for new airframes means Shaanxi can get the much needed work and experience for building these aircraft as well.

AWACs at the Changchun Airshow...

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Bltizo said:

I don't think there have been any new special mission Y-8s built in years... All special mission/Gaoxin aircraft built in the last few years are Y-9 airframes (converted straight from the line of course).

But back when special mission based on the Y-8 airframe were being built back up to the late 2000s, I think they were converted straight off the line, and not rebuilds of old transports.

In fact, I don't know if any Gaoxin platforms or special mission Y-8/Y-9 aircraft were rebuilds of existing transports at all.... if anything, the Air Force's demand for tactical transports means they probably wouldn't be very keen on giving them up for conversion, and also putting in orders for new airframes means Shaanxi can get the much needed work and experience for building these aircraft as well.

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As far as I know You are correct and all recent GX-platforms are new-build ...

Sadly I had not much time during the last few days to follow and esp. contribute to this discussion - esp. the number of required Y-8Q/GX-6 ASW aircraft - but I completely agree a second production line to ramp up the number of aircrafts build each year would be required.

At least for the Y-9 no. 16 was spotted in late August at U-Tapao/Tailand ... see transport thread.

Deino

Deino said:

As far as I know You are correct and all recent GX-platforms are new-build ...

Sadly I had not much time during the last few days to follow and esp. contribute to this discussion - esp. the number of required Y-8Q/GX-6 ASW aircraft - but I completely agree a second production line to ramp up the number of aircrafts build each year would be required.

At least for the Y-9 no. 16 was spotted in late August at U-Tapao/Tailand ... see transport thread.

Deino

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I'm not really sure how many Y-9 airframes Shaanxi can produce per year, so I'm not sure yet if they necessarily need a second production line. If they are able to streamline their existing production line to increase its efficiency it may be able to meet the military's demands as well.

But I think at this stage no one really knows how many Y-9 airframes are produced per year, so we don't have any base to make projections from.

Bltizo said:

I'm not really sure how many Y-9 airframes Shaanxi can produce per year, so I'm not sure yet if they necessarily need a second production line. If they are able to streamline their existing production line to increase its efficiency it may be able to meet the military's demands as well.

But I think at this stage no one really knows how many Y-9 airframes are produced per year, so we don't have any base to make projections from.

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Indeed, and that's a pitty.

But given the huge demand to modernise the transport fleet with new Y-9 and other assets like the EW/AEW and ASW versions, I think the current rate - be it as it is - seems too low.

I remember discussions about 60-100 GX-6 ... by my guesswork the current rate is about 2-3 Y-9s per month (and I think this is a high estimation) ... how long will it take to build them all ?

I would think that with the introduction of Y-9 production the whole production process will have been redesigned and that must have included a production rate as needed. I would expect that rate to be achieved soon. Since when are Y-9's being produced?