The IAF is keeping close tabs on the recent arrival of a much-hushed Chinese aircraft prototype at the Chaklala airbase in North Pakistan. The aircraft, which flew in with a group of Chinese aeronautical scientists late last month, is Beijing’s indigenous Y-8 Airborne Warning And Control System (AWACS) aircraft.

The Chinese AWACS, a typically secretive project that Beijing began after its efforts to acquire Phalcon AWACS jets from Israel was blocked by the US in 2000, will provide the country a light, cheap airborne early warning and detection aircraft that can be produced and deployed in large numbers. Islamabad is expected to sign up to join the project and place orders after the operational demonstrations at Chaklala are over.

AWACS platforms, basically advanced radars mounted on aircraft, provide greater detection and coverage range than ground radars simply by virtue of their altitude, and provide a capability that both India and Pakistan are already in line to acquire.

In June, Pakistan signed up to acquire six Swedish Saab-2000 Erieye AWACS, more than two years after India ordered three Israeli Phalcon jets. But these are both expensive, limiting the numbers that can be acquired by either country.

A point of concern to the IAF is that the Chinese AWACS is near test readiness, which means Islamabad, when it chooses to buy them, will be in a position to deploy it in large numbers far before the Indian homegrown airborne early warning project, under development by DRDO’s Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) in Bangalore, actually takes off.

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