PLAAF & PLANAF special mission aircraft - Y-8GX-family

[Deino]

Seems as if the PLAAF has lost one of its Y-8GX-3 (30513)

https://twitter.com/x/status/957967421725380608

PS ....

 

[clarkgap]

Seems as if the PLAAF has lost one of its Y-8GX-3 (30513)

https://twitter.com/x/status/957967421725380608

PS ....
View attachment 450564

Twelve dead, RIP.

 

[Deino]

Twelve dead, RIP.

R.I.P. .. and may our thoughts be with their families.

 

[Deino]

Here is a serial number visible ... albeit unfortunately not readable.

Can anyone with better eyes read the number? ... looks like a xxxx7 (maybe 30077??) on the end.

Best,
Deino

 

[yusheng]

 

[JSCh]

From Shaanxi Aircraft Corporation.

​

 

[Deino]

https://www.defensenews.com/digital...ction-of-new-airborne-early-warning-aircraft/

China ramps up production of new airborne early warning aircraft
By: Mike Yeo  

China has ramped up production of its newest airborne early warning aircraft, Shaanxi KJ-500, in what an expert on Chinese military aviation says is a sign of the platform’s maturity. (China's Ministry of National Defense)

SINGAPORE – China has ramped up production of its newest airborne early warning aircraft, in what an expert on Chinese military aviation says is a sign of the platform’s maturity.

Recent satellite photos show eight Shaanxi KJ-500 airborne early warning and control, or AEW&C aircraft at the company’s factory airfield at Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province in mid-December 2017. The aircraft were undergoing testing before delivery to China’s military.

These aircraft will join at least four KJ-500s already in service with China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force or PLAAF and a similar number already in service with the naval aviation units, according to Andreas Rupprecht, who has authored several books on China’s military aviation and industry.

Three People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, KJ-500s were seen on satellite photos of the airbase at Lingshui on the Chinese island province of Hainan by December 2017, on the fringes of the South China Sea. Satellite imagery released by Stratfor has also revealed the PLAAF has deployed KJ-500s to Lhasa-Gonggar Airport in Tibet, 200 miles from the Doklam Plateau where a standoff between Chinese and Indian troops over the disputed border occurred in 2017.

Rupprecht told Defense News the dramatic ramp up of KJ-500 is part of pattern of similar increases in production of the Y-9 turboprop airlifter and its derivatives, which include anti-submarine, electronic warfare, and other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance variants, adding that this is an indication that the KJ-500 design is mature enough to be the standard AEW&C platform in both the PLAAF and PLAN.

The KJ-500 has a fixed dorsal rotodome containing three radar arrays each containing active electronically scanned array or AESA radars arranged in a triangular configuration to give full 360° coverage. The new radar design supplants the “balance beam” design used on the earlier Shaanxi KJ-200 AEW&C aircraft.

The radar is reportedly designed by China’s 38th Research Institute of the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, and is said to be smaller and lighter than the rotodome fitted on China’s KJ-2000 AEW&C platform based on the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 jet airlifter. China has built four KJ-2000s and at least 11 KJ-200s based on the Y-8 airlifter, with both types entering service in the mid-2000s.

 

[Deino]

Anyone with an idea what type this is? The one standing besides the KJ-200H?
Nosewise it must be a KJ-500 but the radome is missing.

... or was it deleted?


http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/view/2018-02/27/content_7953545.htm

https://twitter.com/x/status/968942486352728064

 

[BHarwana]

@Deino

Y-8 geophysical survey aircraft

 

[Deino]

@Deino
Y-8 geophysical survey aircraft

Not exactly ... this is the Y-8J acting as a naval surveillance and the PLAN's first AEW-type.

By the way another idea to this variant I spotted yesterday:
This is in fact a KJ-500 and even more interesting, the first assigned to the Northern TC's 2nd Naval Air Division.
... and in order to hide that - all other naval KJ-500s are assigned to the 9th NAD - the radome was erased via photoshop.

Just an idea.

Best,
Deino

 

[JSCh]

 

[cirr]

 

[JSCh]

From Shaanxi Aircraft Corporation.

 

[Deino]

Another one ... so in the end that makes the numbers 30071, 30072, 30073 & 30075 confirmed ... 30074 is missing

But does anyone know if the also known number 30271, which was renumbered is in fact the pre-previously one 30471 (also known is 30472) or was 30271 again renumbered to 30071?

So are there now two different blocks flown with 3007x and 3027x numbers or were they all merged into the new serials?

 

[Deino]

However given a reply at the CDF the number on the tail looks more like 33075.

Well ... that's indeed another surprise? Does anyone have this image in full-size?

Best,
Deino