Sky's no limit

KJ-600 carrier-borne early-warning and control aircraft

Another feature in the carrier-borne aircraft squadron was the public debut of the KJ-600 early-warning and control plane.

Codeveloped by aircraft designers at AVIC and radar researchers from China Electronics Technology Group Corp, one of the world's largest suppliers of defense electronics, the KJ-600 is the fourth fixed-wing early-warning and control plane deployed by the Navy, and also the largest, heaviest and most capable of its kind to be used on Chinese aircraft carriers.

It's expected to be used on the CNS Fujian after the carrier completes its sea trials and put into service in the coming months.

The KJ-600 is propelled by two turboprop engines, and sports a high-mounted wing, a quad-fin tail, tricycle gear and a large dorsal rotodome, which analysts have claimed houses an active electronically scanned array radar.

The use of a quad-fin tail promises safety and stability during takeoff and landing on a carrier, and suits the limited space inside the hangar.

Xiong Jia, a defense technology observer, said that in naval warfare, the ability to detect incoming hostile objects from as far away as possible is crucial to ensuring the safety of a ship.

"Because of the greater detection distance, defense preparations can be more thorough. However, shipborne radars are constrained by a host of factors, so they are unable to spot and track hostile targets at long range," Xiong said. "For instance, the curvature of the Earth greatly restricts their detection range for low-altitude targets. Therefore, carrier-based early-warning aircraft is essential."

Carrier-based early-warning helicopters also lag far behind fixed-wing aircraft in almost every aspect, such as patrol and detection ranges, flight speed and altitude, multi-target tracking capability, weapons guidance function and operational time, he said.

"China must develop hardware like the KJ-600 to better facilitate defense and strike missions of its carrier groups," Xiong added.

Zhang said the KJ-600 is the final component needed to complete China's carrier force combat system, significantly enhancing the fighting prowess of carrier strike groups.

"An important role of carriers is to conduct land and sea strike missions, which requires the group to make forward deployments and move beyond the detection and support range of land-based radars. With fixed-wing early-warning and control aircraft, they can be deployed far from shore to undertake reconnaissance and attack tasks," he said.

In addition to the manned planes, the Navy unveiled its first large shipborne drone. It is expected to be fielded aboard amphibious assault ships.

According to naval arms analysts, the stealth drone can be used for long-range surveillance, reconnaissance and assault missions.

Another unmanned naval platform that broke cover at the parade was the first pilotless rotorcraft developed by China for ship use. It is suitable for surveillance, reconnaissance, communications relay and counter-submarine tasks.