CHINA AND ISRAEL are understood to be in the final stages of negotiating a $200 million deal covering the purchase of up to four Israel Aircraft Industries Phalcon airborne early-warning (AEW) aircraft - although China is already pursuing an AEW project with GEC-Marconi of the UK.
IAI's original Phalcon proposal was based on the Boeing 707 airframe, but it is now evaluating alternative platforms, including an Airbus aircraft. In part, this is being driven by concerns that the USA might object to a Boeing aircraft being used to provide China with an AEW capability. There are, however, several late-model Boeing 707s now in the civil Chinese inventory, which could possibly be converted.
The Phalcon AEW system has three phased-array antennae for the EL/2075 radar, with one nose-mounted and two conformal antennae mounted on cheek fairings. Chile has already purchased one Phalcon AEW from IAI.
GEC-Marconi's AEW programme with China, the Argus 2000, is based on the radar and tactical systems from the UK's cancelled British Aerospace Nimrod AEW programme. A modified Ilyushin Il-76 Candid testbed is believed to have flown already.
What remains unclear is whether an order for the Phalcon would mean the end of the Argus project, or whether the two might run concurrently, perhaps because of substantially different in-service dates.
Source: Flight International
