More on that Chinese Electronic Warfare Y-8 patrolling China's ADIZ

After the Chinese declaration of a Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea on the 23rd of November (see my take over at War Is Boring), China sent up the first patrol to "enforce" its ADIZ that very same day. It was duly intercepted by fighters from Japan's Air Self Defense Force, which brought back a photo of another of China's rarely-seen Y-8 Special Missions types, this time being a Chinese Air Force Shaanxi Y-8GX-1 Electronic Warfare platform.

The Y-8GX-series (GX - GaoXin, 高新 or literally translated as "High New" which is the code name for China's Special Missions Y-8 project) of Special Missions aircraft is not really well known in the public sphere. The various sub-types - eight have been identified so far - fulfill a range of missions such as Electronic Warfare and intelligence gathering (ELINT and SIGINT) along with more orthodox roles like Maritime Patrol and Anti-Submarine Warfare.

The Y-8GX-1 is the first Gao Xin variant, and first flight took place on 26th January 2000. At least four, possibly up to six, airframes were converted to this variant. The Y-8GX-1 featured the removal of the Y-8 transport's rear cargo ramp and is liberally covered in various antennae along the top and bottom fuselage. A large semi-spherical fairing (SATCOM antenna?) sits in front of the vertical tail while a ventral canoe fairing is located on the forward fuselage.

Not much else is known publicly about on-board equipment, but it is reportedly equipped with the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) JN1119 Airborne Communication Reconnaissance System capable of intercepting, direction finding, and jamming wireless communication signals between 100-500MHz and may also carry the 300 & 308 systems for similar purposes.

The first sighting of this type occured in July 2005 while serving with the former 30th Independent (Electronic-Warfare) Regiment, at Nanjing-Dajiaochang in Jiangsu Province. Sometime between late 2011 and 2012 at least two aircraft, including the aircraft photographed here, were transferred to an as-yet unknown Regiment of the newly-formed 20th Division and rehomed to Luzhou in Sichuan Province, part of China's Chengdu Military Region.

JASDF intercepts more Chinese Y-8s, H-6s transiting Miyako Straits

Tracks of intercepted Chinese aircraft release by the Japanese MoD

Like I've said before, this is the New Normal.

Japanese fighters have intercepted two Xi'an H-6G bombers and a similar number of Shaanxi Y-8J AEW/MPAs [.pdf] belonging to the Chinese Navy transiting through international airspace over the Miyako Straits on their way to the Western Pacific on Friday. The two H-6s were flying together, while the Y-8Js flew singly, at different times of the day. The above graphic illustrates the tracks of the individual aircraft.

The Chinese aircraft would likely have been involved in a massive exercise involving all three fleets of the Chinese Navy. The Chinese have also said that the exercises were monitored by "foreign military vessels and reconnaissance aircraft".

We have previously covered the Chinese Navy's Y-8J and H-6Gs involved in greater details here and here respectively.

China ups the ante with Japan (by just that little bit) with overflight

PLAN Y-8J intercepted (and photographed) by the JASDF (© Japanese MoD)

On July 24, the Joint Staff of the Japanese Defense Ministry released a statement that the Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) had scrambled interceptors against a Shaanxi Y-8 Maritime Patrol/Airborne Early Warning aircraft. Nothing new about that, given that the Japanese MoD had already previously noted that scrambles triggered by Chinese military aircraft entering Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) had been on the increase for years, except that this time it came with a slight twist. The aircraft, which turned out to be a Chinese Naval Air Force Y-8J, wasn’t content with skirting the hotly disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands as the usual practice, but flew an approximately south-easterly course through international airspace between Japan’s southern Okinawa and Miyakojima Islands, headed out into the Pacific, before coming back up the same way heading towards its base in mainland China (see image of Y-8’s route, in red below).

Apparently, this is some kind of big deal. Well, I suppose it sort of is, given the much more modest nature of China’s previous aerial activities around Japan, and this is reportedly the first time Chinese military aircraft have reportedly flown this route (although Chinese Navy ships are semi-regular users of the international waters below). However, it still pales in comparison with five foreign aircraft poking around your airspace in one day (which included cruise missile-carrying intercontinental bombers circumnavigating international airspace around Japan)

The difference, I guess, is the simmering dispute over ownership of the supposedly resource-rich Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands between Japan (who currently administers the islands and calls it the Senkakus) and China (who claims the islands and calls it Diaoyu) which means that such Chinese overflights make the mainstream news much more readily than Russian ones. At the end of the day, it IS an escalation, even though in the greater scheme of things, it's not one that really should raise eyebrows by a large margin.

Just a little backgrounder: The Chinese aircraft in question, a Shaanxi Y-8J serialed 9321, is a converted Y-8 transport, which is itself a Chinese-built version of the Soviet Antonov An-12 ‘Cub’, an aircraft roughly the size, capability, performance and versatility of the Lockheed-Martin C-130H Hercules.

The Y-8J is among the oldest of the myriad special mission Y-8 variants which are known to be in use with the Chinese military. Equipped with a Racal (now Thales) Skymaster Pulse-Doppler air-and-sea-search radar in a enlarged, drooping nose radome, the variant was first spotted in 2000 and it is believed that the Chinese operate at least four aircraft with the Chinese Navy’s 2nd Naval Aviation Division, 4th Air Regiment based at Laiyang, Shandong Province.

Note: Excerpts of this post appears in a collaborative, much longer, piece over at War Is Boring.

Shaanxi Y-8 with Synthetic Aperture Radar?

Click on thumbnail to view high resolution image

The Shaanxi Y-8 is definitely the Chinese equivalent to the ubiquitous C-130, with a plethora of variants in service and with still more emerging. This image has been making the rounds of Chinese internet forums the past few days. At first glance it would appear to be a KJ-200 (AEW version of the Y-8, without the balance beam radar) carrying sideways looking Synthetic Aperture Radar antennas. Still in primer, it would be undergoing testing/trials and does not appear to be an operation variant. For now.

What are the chances we'll soon see a Y-8 equivalent of the AC-130 Gunship?

Chinese MPA/ASW aircraft based on Y-8F-600 sighted

Photos have appeared on the internet of a new Chinese Maritime Patrol/Anti-Submarine variant of the AVIC-Shanxii Y-8F-600, a modernized version of the Y-8 transport, which is itself a clone of the Soviet/Russian Antonov An-12. The photos seen so far appears to show a weapons bay, chin-mounted surface-search radar, Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) turret immediately in front of the weapons bay and a Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) boom on the rear fuselage, which does not have a cargo ramp.

Aviationweek's Bill Sweetman has a little more about this on his blog, as has Feng on http://china-pla.blogspot.com/ which has more photos of the beast(s).

Chinese Navy Y-8s approach within 50km of Senkakus/Diaoyutai

Japan has expressed concern, but will not lodge a formal complaint over an incident when two PLA Naval Air Force Y-8 maritime reconnaissance/patrol aircraft approached with 50km (30 miles) of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyutai group of islands. The Y-8s were intercepted and escorted out of the area by JASDF F-15s.

Venezuela to acquire Shannxi Y-8 transports

Weeks after taking delivery of 18 K-8 trainers, Venezuela has announced it will purchase between 10 and 12 medium-range Shaanxi Y-8 transports from China. It is envisaged that the Y-8s will provide support for the Venezuela's fleet of C-130 Hercules transports.

PLAAF introduces medevac transport based on Y-8

China Defense Blog has reported that the PLAAF has introduced a purpose-built medevac aircraft, based on the Shaanxi Y-8C transport (copy of the Antonov An-12), into service. The medical aircraft will meet the demand of long-range evacuation of casualties, and would be useful for disaster relief in peacetime.