China’s current KJ-500 is two generations ahead of the United States, said Lu Jun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, chief scientist of China Electronics Technology Corporation, and chief designer of KJ-2000 early warning command aircraft. And KJ-600 is hopefully to board the new Type 003 aircraft carrier.
The video of China Xinhuanet’s Thinker Lecture Hall on July 7 showed that Lu Jun stated in the lecture that the digital array technology used on China’s KJ-500 is two generations ahead of that of the United States.
He said, “The Jamestown Foundation of the United States said in 2010 that the KJ-2000 is one generation ahead of the US AWACS, and now our KJ-500 is one generation ahead of the KJ-2000, so we are now two generations ahead of them.”
Lu Jun said in the video that China has now formed an “early warning aircraft family”. The KJ-2000 is the first aircraft, while the KJ-500 is mainly for Air Force and Navy, and the KJ-500H is the Navy version.
And China’s most advanced carrier-borne early warning aircraft KJ-600 is in the development stage.
In August 2020, the KJ-600 made its first flight. It was reported that the KJ-600 was equipped with a new type of AESA radar, which can provide China’s aircraft carriers with a larger detection and tracking target range, and is a force multiplier for aircraft carriers.
At the same time, the construction of China’s Type 003 aircraft carrier is progressing rapidly. In the latest aerial photos, the details of the 003 ship island catapult are clearly visible. The Type 003 aircraft carrier is mostly considered to be outfitted at the end of 2021 or early 2022, and will enter service in 2024 at the earliest.
Some analysts pointed out that the KJ-600 is a carrier-based early warning aircraft customized for China’s electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier.
