Pakistan has been looking for an AWACS/AEW/AEW&C platform for years. They tried very hard to buy some or all of Saudi Arabia’s 5 E-3As, to no avail. The Swedish aircraft manufacturer SAAB announced last month in Dubai that Pakistanwill soon receive a first Saab 2000 – 340 AEW (Airborne Early Warning) aircraft in 2000, will use the system.
According to Aviation News NL:
The Pakistan Air Force has in Sweden until the first military surveillance aircraft converted Saab 2000 taken receipt. The device is equipped with the Saab Microwave Systems Erieye developed equipment. Pakistan ordered in 2006 to five observation aircraft to build Saab in 2000 with a contract value of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars.
The Saab Microwave Systems Erieye developed consists of a surface radar, a mission system and electronic warfare equipment. The Saab Aero Tech in 2000’s have converted a mission duration of nine hours.
Erieye equipped with Saab 340 aircraft of the type have been used by the governments of Brazil, Greece, Mexico and Sweden. Thailand also recently ordered a Saab 340 will be equipped with Erieye.
This system will be installed on SAAB 2000 aircraft, which Pakistan Air Force negotiated with Sweden. Pakistan will received 5 of these air crafts with the AWACS system installed.
About AWACS a.k.a AEW &C:
It is an airborne radar system designed to detect aircraft. Used at a high altitude, the radars allow the operators to distinguish between friendly and hostile aircraft hundreds of miles away. AEW&C aircraft are used for defensive and offensive air operations. The system is used offensively to direct fighters to their target locations, and defensively to counter attacks. It can also be used to carry out surveillance, and C2BM (command and control, battle management) functions.
The Erieye radar has two 60 degree cones not covered nose and tail (due to the canoe design of 200 solid state transmit/received modules that are fixed) but this is not a huge problem as Pakistan knows the threat axis. The Swedes can datalink the Erieye and actually control from the ground, but the Saab 340 also had 4 control stations in it. I would guess the 2000 would have 4-6. They don’t need anything like the 9-14 on the E-3 but it is more than the 3 on the E-2C. It is a bit more comparable to Wedgetail in both Radar and SOPs IMuO (in my unclassified opinion)
Alhamdulillah! Excellent news. These AWACS will be a true force multiplier for PAF.
thats great for MY paf