The new regional Il-114-300 has been proposed as the basis for a new airborne early warning and control aircraft. The aircraft could become a more affordable alternative to heavy AWACS aircraft based on the Il-76, explained analyst Sergey Marzhetsky.
The specialist's main idea is to install a fixed side-looking radar antenna on the fuselage.
Instead of a heavy rotating radar on the back of the Il-114, a fixed pylon with an active phased array side-looking antenna can be mounted.
According to Marzhetsky, the Il-114-300 is capable of long-duration patrolling and can be used to detect low-flying cruise missiles and drones.
At the same time, the creation of dozens of such machines would theoretically be simpler than the production of a small number of heavy AWACS aircraft.
The construction of heavy A-100s based on Il-76 transport aircraft is a long, super-expensive process, extremely complicated by the need for import substitution of components. And the Aerospace Forces critically need dozens of cheap, mass-produced flying radars in the sky right now.
It is known from open sources that the Russian Aerospace Forces currently 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.
Read more on the topic:
- Indian Zero-Size Fleet: Who Will Buy 105 Il-114-300 Aircraft?
- Il-114-300 to be sent to India, while Russia will have to switch to trains