What if China’s KJ-600 aircraft could serve older carriers as well as Fujian?

China’s first fixed-wing carrier-based early-warning aircraft may have sacrificed aerial refuelling to be able to operate from both ski-jump and catapult-equipped vessels, according to a Chinese military magazine.

The KJ-600 airborne early warning and control aircraft was designed for catapult-launched operations and made its debut at the Victory Day parade in early September, flying over Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

01:34

China’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, enters service

Later that month, video was released of its take-off and landing via electromagnetic systems on board China’s Type 003 aircraft carrier Fujian, which entered service late last year.

While most of the KJ-600’s specifications and performance capabilities are comparable with the US Navy’s E-2D Hawkeye, its apparent lack of aerial refuelling capability was “puzzling”, according to an analysis in the December issue of Shipborne Weapons.

The report speculated that the KJ-600’s AEP-400 turboprop engines might be less powerful than those of the E-2D, making it difficult to support the additional weight of an aerial refuelling system.

However, the article went on to suggest that the lighter design of the KJ-600 was more likely to be “highly relevant” to the requirements of the Chinese navy’s two Kuznetsov-class carriers, which rely on traditional ski-jump launch operations.

The Liaoning and Shandong carriers would continue to be important assets for the Chinese military, despite the advances of the Fujian and future catapult-equipped carriers, the report noted.

South China Morning Post