China’s new domestic electronic warfare aircraft J-16D has flown to Zhuhai, and will make its first public appearance. With the Zhuhai Airshow about to open on September 28, a variety of Chinese weapons are ready to show.
The J-16D electronic warfare aircraft began flight tests in December 2015 at the latest and was revealed to be using Chinese-made engines. The J-16D electronic warfare aircraft has sufficient internal space and a large number of external mount points to meet the internal modification of a large amount of electronic warfare equipment and the mounting of various types of electronic warfare pods, while also ensuring the ability to carry the necessary air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons, which is even stronger than the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G.
The J-16D is equipped with a new reconnaissance warning system receiver, which can manage and control the airborne electronic jamming pods to “track and target jam” multiple radar electromagnetic sources. This is one of the most advanced airborne tactical reconnaissance warning systems in the world. In addition, in order to ensure more effective jamming suppression, J-16D electronic warfare aircraft will use a new generation of high-powered airborne tactical jamming pods.
Compared to China’s previous electronic jamming pods, the new tactical jamming pods are heavier, larger, and will further expand the coverage frequency to 0.05 to 20 GHz, the launch power will also be increased from the existing 30 to 40 kilowatts to nearly 100 kilowatts, the effective jamming distance will be increased from the current stage of dozens of kilometers to more than 150 kilometers.
In addition to the new tactical jamming pods, the latest J-16D electronic warfare aircraft will also be equipped with a new tactical communications jamming and suppression system with the ability to deceive, jam and suppress land-based, sea-based and air-based communications systems (even data chain systems), which is also groundbreaking among the Chinese Air Force tactical electronic warfare aircraft.
Furthermore, the latest J-16D electronic warfare aircraft also has a strong anti-radiation capability, it can mount the advanced YJ-91 anti-radiation missile (Eagle Strike 91), and China’s new anti-radiation missile operational capability has significantly exceeded the YJ-91 and has a significantly higher operational capability than the latter, while the J-16D can mount a larger number of them due to its reduced size and weight, a perfect match for anti-radiation operations.