indranilroy wrote:
There is no way that you can use the same platform and carry more stuff using the same amount of fuel.
Going from a civilian airliner, one loses the passengers,furniture and luggage but adds electronic equipment. Generally the plane gets heavier. There is no workaround.
There are other factors affecting range too. If you have strong power hungry electronics (the E-3 requires about 1MW of power for its electronics), then you have to lug around more fuel to burn. Sometimes, you would have to add ballasts too (for example going from the E-3As to the E-3Bs).
Coming to the wedgetails, they do have auxiliary fuel tanks (taken from the 737-BBJs). Additionally, although they have the 737-700 fuselage, they had to have the stronger and heavier 737-800 wing to support their extra weight and the BBJ aux fuel tanks. The Top Hat antenna alone weighs close to 3000 kgs, but this is much lower than the chapati on say the A-50s or the E-3s. Also such arrangements have lesser form drag when compared to the chapati.
P.S. I have no idea of what size the plane should be. I don't know what are the weights of the electronics and the envisioned range.
You are right, there is no way you can add more payload and go farther. Plus you use some fraction of fuel for lighting up your stuff.
Let me work the payload in a different way.
Two requirements keep showing up in our indian scenario.
One - Elint and the favorable platform of choice seems Gulf Stream V ( Useful payload - 3000 Kgs. )
two - AEW again gulf stream has in past has shown interest, but ERJ145 has been chosen We will take the larger payload ( 5500 Kgs )
If we were to order a bigger bird, it would be to combine both those options and perhaps even do a E8 type mode using the same AESA radar ( Extra hardware ) if we are lucky ( but unlikely )
So if we combine all three requirements in one bird, we would have about 3 consoles from gulfstream and about 5 from ERJ145. Plus we would not have to constantly juggle different modes on these consoles. We could add an extra 2-3 and a commanders work area which the above units would have difficulty in accommodating.
Gulfstream payload = 3K
ERJ payload =5.5 K
Chapati = 3K ( as per you )
Extra compute hardware for other modes, rest area seating furniture+ commanders work area = 3K
Total = 14.5K ( Totally generous )