Sweeping The Skies

Guarding sovereign territory and detecting economic zone incursions requires modern long-range aerial surveillance.

- Jon Lake

Airborne surveillance and airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft provide an invaluable force multiplier, improving the combat effectiveness of other assets, and thereby helping smaller air forces to meet some of the challenges posed by the numerical superiority of People’s Republic of China’s air arms. Most traditional AEW&C and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft also provide some capability to monitor the maritime environment, and can provide warning of possible enemy ballistic missile attacks, making missile defence systems more effective.

Some newer AEW aircraft, like Saab’s innovative GlobalEye swing role surveillance system (SRSS), have a more robust multi-role capability, using electrooptical (EO) sensors and a dedicated surface search radar in addition to the primary airborne surveillance radar sensor. In the case of the GlobalEye, the Erieye ER AESA radar, mounted in a ‘skibox’ radome above the fuselage, is augmented by a FLIR Systems Star Safire 380HD EO/IR turret and an underfuselage Leonardo Seaspray 7500E radar. The GlobalEye’s multiple sensors allow it to detect and track stealthy airborne targets and small maritime targets, including jetskis and rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs).

With China’s claims in the South China Sea increasingly impinging on the economic interests and security of its neighbours, and with increased Chinese military activity across the region, there is a growing need to monitor Chinese military operations on the surface, and particularly in the air. Chinese efforts to gain an anti-access/area denial (A2/D2) advantage make it especially important for other nations to be able to conduct surveillance at very long range.