By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia hopes to develop a new airborne warning and control system (AWACS) plane by 2016, Air Force chief Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said Tuesday.
“We are expecting to receive the A-100 aircraft built on the basis of the Il-476 transport plane with the PS-90 engine and extended flight range,” Zelin told reporters in Moscow.
The new AWACS plane will be capable of detecting and tracking airborne and land-based targets.
The Russian Air Force has around 20 A-50 Mainstay AWACS planes based on the Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft.
The A-50 is equipped with the large Liana surveillance radar with its antenna in an over-fuselage rotodome and can control up to 10 fighter aircraft for either air-to-air intercept or air-to-ground attack missions.