Pakistan's Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircrafts

[TaimiKhan]

I think there is some confusion here the term "Balance Beam" has likely more to do with beam characteristics and absolutely no relation to the shape of the radome.

"Balance beam" is just a designation for the Chinese radar that Pakistan will receive, it is a name like "Condor" or "Green Pine". Whether the radar is mounted on a dorsal plank fairing (like Erieye) or a fixed rotodome is of little consequence since the array is two sided and NOT triangular like the KJ-2000 or IAF Phalcon.

Hint: look at KJ2000 and IAF Phalcon you will see a silver triangle on the rotodome. On the E-3 and Pakistani Y-8F600 ZDK-03 it is a broad silver line indicating it is a two sided array.

The only mechanical and electronically steered airborne radar is the new APY-9 (Hawkeye E-2D).

Sorry my bad, it has a rotating dish. I confused it with something else.

"Q: The Chinese AWACS progress of the procurement plan?

A: The Chinese AWACS can reach the Pakistan Air Force aerial reconnaissance and related mission requirements.China's aircraft operations and technology has entered the final stage of negotiations, the contract is expected soon. We have completed our study, and proposed a long list of improvements. Eventually we will get close to the ability of the Air Force procurement requirements. China has studied our proposals, and from here we have a lot of feedback.

We have defined a lot of technical requirements - such as aircraft internal enviourment, we require improvement. We should improve the internal renovation, the pilot's comfort level must be improved (he has to 7-9 hours-day mission). Aircraft models is ZDK-03, at the top of a rotating disk rather than the balance beam. We need four aircraft, we would love them to be commonly configured with other systems including the Erieye. They would be used to monitor Pakistans airspace which is entirely defensive in nature.

China's ZDK-03 aircraft will be cross-linked with Chinese planes,Erieyes and other Western aircraft will also be data-linked to one another, but at present there are no planes to data-link the Mirages. "

PAF Falcons Forums • View topic - ACM Interview: PAF will purchase FC-20 by end of this year

http://www.defence.pk/forums/milita...chinese-aew-c-aircraft-year-2.html#post842397

 

[TaimiKhan]

Check the angle of the disk resting in each of the pic, it seems to be rotating one.





And this one which came to Pakistan

 

[KEETARP]

Aircraft models is ZDK-03, at the top of a rotating disk rather than the balance beam

What he meant by Balance Beam was probably "Full Beam Management " , in case of Mechanically Aperture there is minimal Beam Management .
Electronic Choreography / Electronically controlled Beam Steering is what Balanced Beam term must have been used to convey meaning

 

[TaimiKhan]

What he meant by Balance Beam was probably "Full Beam Management " , in case of Mechanically Aperture there is minimal Beam Management .
Electronic Choreography / Electronically controlled Beam Steering is what Balanced Beam term must have been used to convey meaning

From Balance Beam what he meant was the one used on KJ-200 or the Erieye system, as he mentions rotating dish with it, thus he differentiated about the shape of the radar and its mechanism that whether it would be static or will it rotate.

The radar shape on KJ-200 and Erieye are shaped like a Balance Beam used in gymnastics. Like below:

So he and we are discussing about the shape and make, how it works and on what tech it works, well that would be kept a secret for obvious reasons.

 

[dbc]

Check the angle of the disk resting in each of the pic, it seems to be rotating one.

I doubt the platform Pakistan is getting is a rotating rotodome since it is expensive to build and operate a rotating rotodome.

 

[TaimiKhan]

I doubt the platform Pakistan is getting is a rotating rotodome since it is expensive to build and operate a rotating rotodome.

Well that is what the Ex-PAF Chief had said in the above interview.

Plus, the model picture which cam recently on the net also shows the same thing with Pak-China flags on it.

And a certain member on the forum with very good inside knowledge had also said that China had not agreed to give the KJ-2000 based system exactly as what Chinese are using, but still it would be having many of the latest what the Chinese can give us. So may be the Chinese had not agreed to provide the AESA based platform for the time being.

I believe in a few months time, the picture would be clear as the system should be in Pakistan by end of this year.

 

[KEETARP]

O yes Taimi , you are correct Balance Beam is actually radar arrangement , I confused it with software management .
Now as DBC says the Shape of arrangement of Array on Disk will be in Triangular shape ,
How much that disk rotation will be needed if needed at all , bcoz of Beam Steering you can have 360 degree coverage with time based Selective Tracking as well , out of whole scanning zone ,
what's the use of rotation if you have AESA

 

[dbc]

Chinese had not agreed to provide the AESA based platform for the time being.

I believe in a few months time, the picture would be clear as the system should be in Pakistan by end of this year.

Are you saying the Chinese system Pakistan is in the process of acquiring may not be an AESA?

 

[TaimiKhan]

O yes Taimi , you are correct Balance Beam is actually radar arrangement , I confused it with software management .
Now as DBC says the Shape of arrangement of Array on Disk will be in Triangular shape ,
How much that disk rotation will be needed if needed at all , bcoz of Beam Steering you can have 360 degree coverage with time based Selective Tracking as well , out of whole scanning zone ,
what's the use of rotation if you have AESA

Well it may not be an AESA, it may be something based on PESA or a normal radar as used in the US systems, not the latest ones, the older systems kind.

 

[TaimiKhan]

Are you saying the Chinese system Pakistan is in the process of acquiring may not be an AESA?

May be, as nothing confirmed has come up in this regard.

Problem is that the system which came to Pakistan in 2005 was the one whose pictures have been given, the rotating dish version, while Chinese AESA based KJ-200/KJ-2000 came much earlier at start of 2001-02 i believe.

So if Pakistan had wanted something based on AESA, then we should have seen something else, not the rotating dish version.

US E-3 has PESA radar in them, don't they ??

So why not a PESA based system on the PAF ZDK-03

 

[farhan_9909]

what is the range of this kj-200

is it bettter then erieye ?

 

[maxx]

I found this:

December also saw Pakistan sign a $278 million deal for four Chinese KJ-2000/ZDK03 AEW&C aircraft, whose active electronically steered array radar is mounted on a turboprop-powered Y-8F600.

Pakistan Surmounts Sanctions To Revive Airpower - Defense News

 

[TaimiKhan]

I found this:

Pakistan Surmounts Sanctions To Revive Airpower - Defense News

Yeah, a lot of sources say its AESA, but there isn't any confirmed official source.

The pictures of the platform which came to Pakistan and the pictures of the latest model of ZDK-03 pasted previous page says something else.

 

[Sanchez]

ZDK-03 was not based on AESA radar in the origin prototype when showed to PAF several years ago. PAF had asked for modifications but no one knows if it'd be changed to AESA.

 

[Sanchez]

what is the range of this kj-200

is it bettter then erieye ?

350-450kms