Pakistan's Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircrafts

[Yasser76]

This is certainly Pakistan. Only Saudi and Pak operate the SAAB 2000. Saudis have trouble manning their current fleet of E-3s and many think purchased their Erieyes for Pakistan anyway. After induction ceremony no one has seen Saudi Erieye anywhere, not even when they during their air shows and parades, My guess is Erieye was so effective during Swift Retort that PAF want to top up their current 6/7 systems to maybe 9/10. PAF also only ones to have quite a few spare SAAB 2000s flying as transport aircraft. I guess these were purchased to deliberately be converted to Erieye once funding became available. I think current PAF fleet is 6/7 Erieye and 4 standard SAAB 2000 transports. This expansion also syncs in with news that 2nd PAF Erieye Sqd will be made operational, so we get 5 planes per Sqd. I think this will be one unit for North and one for South. Also indicates performance of Chinese ZDK has not been that good

 

[Pakistani Fighter]

Also indicates performance of Chinese ZDK has not been that good

They are used in Maritime surveillance

 

[SD 10]

Also indicates performance of Chinese ZDK has not been that good

you should have check the usage of zdk in pakistan before making such claims.......

 

[Yasser76]

you should have check the usage of zdk in pakistan before making such claims.......

No one can really "check the usage" in Pakistan, we can only go by what news is available. Do you have usage stats of ZDK compared to Erieye in PAF service? I doubt it. Simple truth is PAF seems to love Erieye, this is our thurd order for the system and will create a fleet of 10. ZDK has been in service just as long and Chinese can give us more on very good terms of credit but we have not ordered even a single one. That speaks enough.

My guess with 10 Erieyes we want complete coverage of Pakistan. So that begs the question what is ZDK useful for? My guess is it will be committed just to support Navy over the sea.

They are used in Maritime surveillance

Yes, in which case it will essentially be Erieyes that support 90% of PAF fighter operations

 

[Reichmarshal]

After kamra attack and the subsequent in house program to recover the damaged erieyes has given our engineers an insight into the a.c. which is second to non.
Now we know every inch of the system n subsystem of the a.c.. A capability that only the manufacturer of the a.c. it's it's component makers have.
So PAF is utilizing this to the fullest. It dosent make karakarum eagle any less capable.

As Saab has stoped production of the Saab 2000 PAF needs to buy the manufacturing rights from Saab like it did for Saab safari

 

[mingle]

Also it's Pak reason Sweden put ban on weapons sale to Saudia due Yemen.

 

[Blacklight]

I was hoping for ER version

You wont be dissapointed IA

The 160m figure doesnt add up.

It is not supposed tp, part of PAF's strategy to keep people guessing

There are more than 3 ER systems, unlike what Janes said.

Yes Sir, absolutely!

there could be more and then there is the EO/IR's as well which is yet to be confirmed officially

EO/IR's and the usual stuff

 

[Pakistani Fighter]

You wont be dissapointed IA

InshALLAH

 

[Yasser76]

After kamra attack and the subsequent in house program to recover the damaged erieyes has given our engineers an insight into the a.c. which is second to non.
Now we know every inch of the system n subsystem of the a.c.. A capability that only the manufacturer of the a.c. it's it's component makers have.
So PAF is utilizing this to the fullest. It dosent make karakarum eagle any less capable.

As Saab has stoped production of the Saab 2000 PAF needs to buy the manufacturing rights from Saab like it did for Saab safari

Not really, plenty of SAAB 2000 airframes around the world we can buy and which PAF has been quietly buying up so that we can convert ourselves.

Does beg the question that 10 Erieyes are more then enough so we will not require many more, maybe 1-2 over next 20 years for attrition.

10 Erieyes plus 4 ZDKs gives Pakistan one of the largest AEW fleets in the world, to put it in perspective

NATO = 14 E-3s
Saudi = 5 E-3s + 2 Erieyes
UK = 5 E-7s
USAF = 31 E-3s
Russia = 6 A-50
India = 3 Phalcons + 2 NETA (both development aircraft)
China = 5 KJ-2000 + 11 KJ-200 + 12 KJ-500

Essentially we have the 3rd largest AEW force in the world.

 

[Pakistani Fighter]

@Blacklight at how much distance does Erieye ER can track Rafale?

 

[Yasser76]

@Blacklight at how much distance does Erieye ER can track Rafale?

Unsure anyone knows for certain, probably very classified true capability for both platforms

 

[Bilal Khan (Quwa)]

No one can really "check the usage" in Pakistan, we can only go by what news is available. Do you have usage stats of ZDK compared to Erieye in PAF service? I doubt it. Simple truth is PAF seems to love Erieye, this is our thurd order for the system and will create a fleet of 10. ZDK has been in service just as long and Chinese can give us more on very good terms of credit but we have not ordered even a single one. That speaks enough.

My guess with 10 Erieyes we want complete coverage of Pakistan. So that begs the question what is ZDK useful for? My guess is it will be committed just to support Navy over the sea.



Yes, in which case it will essentially be Erieyes that support 90% of PAF fighter operations

The PN had originally wanted 3 Hawkeye-2000s onboard P-3Bs, so it's worth seeing if the PAF simply transfers the ZDK03s to the Navy in 2-3 years. This will be an interesting offshoot since the PN is also building-up its aviation wing with new LRMPAs and MALE UAVs. It's also adding a medium-range air defence element too, so over-the-horizon situational awareness will be key -- an AEW&C will fit really well.

 

[Pakistani Fighter]

The PN had originally wanted 3 Hawkeye-2000s onboard P-3Bs, so it's worth seeing if the PAF simply transfers the ZDK03s to the Navy in 2-3 years.

Why would it? Its PAF which has to deal with Aerial threats in sea too. Navy doesn't operate Fighter Jets

 

[Yasser76]

The PN had originally wanted 3 Hawkeye-2000s onboard P-3Bs, so it's worth seeing if the PAF simply transfers the ZDK03s to the Navy in 2-3 years.

Yes, I think with Chinese Frigates and Subs Navy may be able to better make use of ZDK system

 

[MIRauf]

The PN had originally wanted 3 Hawkeye-2000s onboard P-3Bs, so it's worth seeing if the PAF simply transfers the ZDK03s to the Navy in 2-3 years. This will be an interesting offshoot since the PN is also building-up its aviation wing with new LRMPAs and MALE UAVs. It's also adding a medium-range air defence element too, so over-the-horizon situational awareness will be key -- an AEW&C will fit really well.

That would be a welcome move for the PN, not sure how the Upgrade to the KJ-500 standard is going for ZDKs. One was suppose to be there for upgrade, last I read a while back.