New Il-114-300 turboprop airliners are suitable for conversion into Airborne Early Warning and Control (AWACS) aircraft to replace the A-50U. However, the basic "Shmel" radar simply will not fit on the fuselage of a civilian aircraft; a new radar system will have to be created, analysts from "Voennaya Khronika" reported.
They reminded that the weight of the A-50 radio-technical complex equipment is estimated at approximately 20 tons. This includes the radar itself, computing equipment, operator workstations, communications, and a huge antenna with a diameter of more than 10 meters.
For the Il-114-300, such an option is clearly unsuitable. The aircraft's payload is only up to 7 tons. Therefore, it will require not a scaled-down copy of the A-50, but a completely different radio-technical complex.
Experience can be borrowed from the Swedish AWACS aircraft Saab Erieye. There, instead of a heavy "dish," a significantly more compact fixed AESA is used, installed above the fuselage.
An Il-114 with a modern AESA could solve a more limited set of tasks, but theoretically, significantly more such aircraft could be built.
Currently, the Russian Aerospace Forces have about 8 A-50U Airborne Early Warning aircraft. The A-100 "Premier" was supposed to be their development, but no news has been received since the release of the prototype.
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