but there’s no AEW Merlin yet? or at least that I know of?
and no AEW Z-8? the Chinese as far as i know, still use the Ka-31? please correct me if I’m wrong.

The Z-8 is why I included ‘proposed’.;)

And AEW Merlins are already flying, as mentioned above. I even found the PDF brochure for the radar they used, but I don’t have it at the moment. What I do remember is that I compared the figures with the Ka-31’s Oko radar and found they were certainly superior.

The Raytheon proposal was for the Royal Navy’s MASC requirement to replace the Sea King mk7s with a more capable AEW platform based on the Merlin.

Russia really need a smaller fifth gen bomb truck as well it seems. May be by mig

The LFI perished on the drawing board. Unless someone comes up with the millions it’s not gonna happen.

Besides, even the PAK-FA with its size comes with operational limitations like internal payload to maintain its stealth; a smaller fighter will have to make even more compromises.

Frankly I have a hard time believing that. The fuselage diameter of the G550 is less than 2.4m and the two lateral arrays are clearly somewhat narrower (maybe 1.8m) while length appears to be about 7m and the nose/tail arrays are much smaller. That’s pretty big, particularly considering airframe size, but you’d still have to be quite wasteful in your packaging for the *three* arrays in the ~10m by ~2m radome of the A-50EI to be smaller. Individually, they’ll be similar in size to one of the CAEW cheek arrays, but definitely not smaller.

Hmm. I don’t really have the time or the interest to quote exact numbers, so I won’t disagree with you here.

Partly, yes – the new MS-21 line would exist *only* for this reason. And even then funding the Il-476/478/A-100 was a mistake anyway.

And for a tanker version(instead of the IL-478). And for a SIGINT version, Airborne Command Post version, a VIP transport version and all other military applications for which special IL-96/106 and Tu-204/214 variants have been sought in the past.

Combined with export prospects for the same, I think the numbers would be enough to justify at least limited series production.

The Italian Marina Militare has 4 EH 101 HEW, a practically standard ASW EH 101 without dipping sonar but with a bigger radar.

Fuel capacity: 3,296 kg
Endurance: 4 hours / equivalent 480 nm
On-board apparatus: HEW-784 Pulse Doppler X-band radar, Star Saphire II FLIR, ESM, Link 11, IFF interrogator
Defensive suite: SIAP ECDS-2 integrated self-defence suite,chaffe and flare dispenser
Crew — minimum: 2 Pilots and 2 Operators

How does this compare to Ka 31? Patrol speed and range of EH101 would seem better than that of Ka31. Dunno about radar performance.

I’ve researched(in an amateur capacity of course:p) every current and proposed helicopter-based AEW system in existence(the Sea King mk7, the AEW Merlin, a Raytheon proposal for the Merlin, the Chinese Z-8) and I’m sorry to say that the Indian Navy chose the worst possible solution available.

Not only does the Ka-31 have a smaller range than the Merlin, it also has an inferior radar compared to the rest, and perhaps worst of all also lacks any onboard processing equipment or operator consoles and thus serves as a purely AEW platform, with no ability to datalink or command fighters.:(

I’d like to repeat an old question of mine that went unanswered: whatever happened to the ultra-long range KS-172 AAM that Novator once offered to India? And the R-77M ramjet version that was intended to compete with the Meteor?

The Superjet and An-148 are *way* too small to carry a radar of the capabilities Russia is probably looking for. While the MS-21 should work pretty well, Irkut will want to dedicate their entire capacity to civilian production for several years and with first flight not before 2014 it could take 10 years from now before any resources are available for an AEW version.

Not necessarily, at least not with modern AESA arrays and lighter processing equipment. The Israeli G550-based CAEW has more endurance and a more capable system than the A-50 despite being based on a significantly smaller platform.

And with the number of Russian aviation production plants that are wanting for orders why couldn’t room be found for a dedicated military MS-21 limited-series production line?

From here:
http://club.mil.news.sina.com.cn/thread-392698-1-1.html
… so there are three pics. One of them is clearly a Y-8/Y-9

The other two seem to show a different aircraft? Y-20???

I have to say, the Russians really blew their chances with the IL-76/78 deal. Assuming that plane under-construction is the Y-20 prototype it seems unlikely that China will have any more need for IL-76 platforms in the near future. Their current fleet can last another 5-6 years till the Y-20 is certified for induction.

The idea of internal weapons bay on a Russian fighter has somewhat less utility than on a Western one because of the significantly larger size of Russian A2G missiles: the Yakhont, the Moskit, the Kh-59M and the like. Of course, the PAK-FA’s main purpose is air-to-air combat, but still I’d have liked if that gap between the air intakes was wider…:(

Has Sukhoi explored the idea of Silent Eagle-style conformal weapons bays for the PAK-FA?