Beriev A-50

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Beriev A-50 Mainstay

The Beriev A-50 Russian: Шмель (Shmel, "bumble-bee") (NATO reporting name: Mainstay) is a Russian airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft based on the Ilyushin Il-76 transport. Developed to replace the Tu-126 Moss (a variant of the Tu-95 Bear bomber), the Mainstay first flew in 1980. It entered service in 1984 (or in 1986?), with about 40 produced by 1992.

The type has a lengthened forward fuselage providing the additional volume required for the tactical compartment in which the mission personnel of the 15-man crew derive data from the large Liana surveillance radar with its antenna in an over-fuselage rotordome, which has a diameter of 29 ft 9 in (9.00 m).

The A-50 can control up to 10 fighter aircraft. A-50 is capable to fly for 4 hours at 1000 km from base at max takeoff mass of 190 t. The aircraft can be refuelled from Il-78 tanker.

Radar "Vega-M" designed by MNIIP, Moscow, produced by NPO Vega-M. "Vega-M" is capable to track up to 50 targets simultaneously within 230 km range. Large targets (ships) are tracked within 400 km range.

Electronics by Beriev's OKB.

Beriev A-50 Mainstay

A-50 looks very close to the SKIP aircraft (the fore cockpit should have no glass).

Long range radar search for naval and air targets on minimal altitudes;
Link with Automated Control System;
Guides aircraft of Military AF, Anti-Missile Defences, the Navy on targets;
In-flight refueling;
Etc.;

[edit] Domestic Variants

SKIP - a variant of Beriev A-50

A-50U - updated variant.
SKIP - Airborn Measure and Control Point. Fixed radar cover filled with another equipment. Navigator cockpit preserved.

[edit] A-50I

This is the version of A-50 for China. The first export of A-50, and it is also the only export of A-50 up to date (As of 2006). The name is western. The Chinese indigenously converted A-50Is from Ilyushin Il-76 transports and these converted airplanes are powered by Soloviev D-30 engines used on the transport version.

[edit] Origin

The original plan was to have Israel Aircraft Industries upgrade the Ilyushin Il-76 with Elta Electronic Industries' IAI Phalcon Active Electronically Scanned Array, which is a fixed radar antenna of three active phased arrays. The radar can track 60 targets simultaneously up to 370 km away for targets with a radar cross section of 3 square metres. A total of 4 aircraft were planned with the first and the possibly the second being upgraded in Israel, and the remaining in China. China gave Israel a quarter of a billion dollars for the down payment and the total deal cost at least a billion dollars. However, under US pressure, Israeli cancelled the deal in early 2000's, and had to return the money, but it remains unclear how much penalty payment Israel paid to China. Israel did provide China a set of desert drip irrigation system, and although both China and Israel denied that this was not part of the penalty payment, it was generally viewed by outsiders as so.

[edit] Current Status

Although A-50I for China was cancelled, the experienced obtained was still valuable for Israel in that the important knowledge was gained for integrading the Israeli radar to the Ilyushin Il-76 airframe and Israel continued to advertise the Il-76 AWACS platform as an option to other potential customers. The same important knowledge gained by the Chinese participation in the program was also valuable to China in that KJ-2000, the Chinese replacement for A-50I after the cancellation, had the exact same radar configuration.