KJ-600 carrierborne AEWC thread

Atomicfrog

Major
Registered Member
In fact I'm not allowed to post these images, but I saw them. They are from Jane's and clearly show three individual green KJ-600 - two (nos. 03 & 04) on the factory section left and one (no. 03) at the CFTE section right. The grey prototype (no. 01) is not visible and maybe in a hangar.





But this is an old image fro early October ... so two new aircraft spotted within two months.
They need some for testing and training. I don't see a lot more than two per carrier. I don't see that plase used a lot from land based airfields with KJ-500 who have probably better range and capabilities... How many KJ-600 do they need ?
 

daifo

Captain
Registered Member
They need some for testing and training. I don't see a lot more than two per carrier. I don't see that plase used a lot from land based airfields with KJ-500 who have probably better range and capabilities... How many KJ-600 do they need ?
us carriers carries 4-6. Maybe they will also use them in some bases in scs?
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
They need some for testing and training. I don't see a lot more than two per carrier. I don't see that plase used a lot from land based airfields with KJ-500 who have probably better range and capabilities... How many KJ-600 do they need ?

I would expect Chinese carriers to be operating to the East of Taiwan, say 1000km from mainland China.
So 4 are probably required for continuous surveillance of the local area.
But I could see them carrying more.

Surveillance is more important that the number of fighters, given:
1. an airwing of 40? aircraft on the carrier
2. the distances to Guam (approx 2000km) or Japan (approx 1000km). That limits the numbers of fighter aircraft in the area
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
Charles de Gaulle deploys with two Hawkeyes on board, so my guess would be three KJ-600s for 003, with four as the upper bound.

The 003 carrier displaces in the region of 85000tonnes. That is roughly twice the Charles de Gaulle.

So a better comparison of the 003 is with the Kitty Hawk conventional carrier, which was also a CATOBAR carrier and had a similar displacement.

IIRC, carrier air wings on the last Kitty Hawk carrier had 4 Hawkeyes like carrier air wings in the US today
 

Atomicfrog

Major
Registered Member
With two aircraft, it should be possible that one aircraft always flies CAP while the other is refueling on the aircraft carrier. A third aircraft would serve as a reserve in case one of the other two aircraft needs maintenance.
It's a case of how far from mainland China the carrier will operate... if they can switch aircraft from some on the mainland most of the time, I thing it's possible to carry 2 or 3 without capacity problems.
 
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