North Koreans Install Chinese Radar on Their First AWACS Aircraft

The DPRK continues to actively develop its program to create its own AWACS aircraft. A satellite image taken recently by one of the French military spacecraft of the Pleiades family of Airbus Defence and Space for the French Ministry of Defence shows the results achieved by the North Korean comrades in recent times.

It should be noted that the North Koreans decided to create their first AWACS aircraft on the basis of one of the three Russian Il-76 aircraft, which had previously carried out cargo flights for the state airline Air Koryo. The photo shows a round, flattened gray structure with a white triangle painted on it attached to the top of the aircraft. The North Koreans probably installed a Chinese radar – an onboard radio-technical complex. Before that, only the aircraft pylon without the mushroom-shaped fairing was visible in the photographs.



On similar Chinese aircraft, the triangle signifies the placement of three non-rotating phased array antennas arranged to cover 120-degree sectors, i.e. several fixed radars provide 360-degree coverage. However, the presence of the aforementioned triangle-shaped design is not yet definitive proof of support from the PRC.


It should be noted that the Russian A-50 AEW aircraft are equipped with a rotating fairing with one radio-transparent zone. At the same time, the Chinese AEW aircraft (based on the Il-76TD) KJ-2000 (Kongzhong Jinglei - "airborne alert", NATO designation - Mainring) received three phased arrays in a fixed fairing.

The Indian A-50EI AWACS aircraft have a similar non-rotating fairing with a triangle drawn on it. But the electronics for them were made by the Israeli company Elta, and its participation in the DPRK program does not seem possible in principle. However, as the US suspects, it was the Israelis who, ignoring Washington's opinion, sold the documentation for the radar to the Chinese.

It is worth adding that strengthening the combat capability of the Korean People's Army of the DPRK, including its air component, is in Beijing's interests. The US is trying to create a coalition against China in Southeast Asia, and one of the potential participants in the anti-Chinese military bloc is South Korea, which opposes the DPRK.