What does India and several other airforces know that we don't? Even with the US subsidizing buys of our products by foreign govts...even with Europe doing the same, Embraer is still kicking everyone's butt.PRESS RELEASE | São Paulo, August 16, 2012 | Embraer Defense and Security today delivered the first EMB 145 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) class of aircraft to the Government of India, in a ceremony held at Embraer’s headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil. The delivery follows successful completion of ground and flight tests of the aircraft which met operational targets established by both Embraer and Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO). Later on the aircraft will be delivered to the Indian Air Force after integration of missions systems of DRDO by CABS in India.
What makes this concept so damn attractive?
my guess would be the size and the gas it using
ReplyDeleteIt ain't the Embraer aircraft, it's the Erieye. They can't afford a Boeing 767(which is a huge target besides) and they don't have the F-22's AESA to bird dog targets.
ReplyDeleteIt's easier to operate in terms of logistics, if they lose one half of their annual defense budget doesn't vaporize along with it, and they don't have to be in our good graces to get one like they would for an E-2C Hawkeye.
It is also interesting that countries like India and Saudi Arabia are using them in a hi-lo mix with traditional AWAC platforms.
It would be interesting if you could assign one of these with each squadron.
In addition to Paralus's points, the E-2 carries a lot of design penalties for being an old design that had to be carrier capable.
ReplyDeleteSaab is putting the Erieye on a few different platforms, all based off airliners which lowers both acquisition and operating costs.
A contemporary and competitor is the Israeli EL/W-2085 mounted on a Gulfstream 550, a platform selected by the Israelis because it has long range and high altitude cruise but far lower acquisition costs than a 767 or similar platform.
What AEW brings to the party in general is pretty well known, but these sorts of platforms are also a chance for smaller air forces to do two important things:
-- Get into AESA and leverage its benefits without buying new fighters or even substantially rebuilding old ones
-- Get big, lower frequency antennas into the air. Erieye is S band and EL/W-2085 is even lower L band so both are going to have advantages for detecting stealth targets over the X band radars typically used for air to air.