AWACS aircraft "in combat situations" (by which I presume you mean getting shot at) are dead meat. At that point, they've already failed, & the landing characteristics of the aircraft are unlikely to make any difference to its survivability.John Snow wrote:http://www.bmrexpress.com/IL76.htm
Probably because of STOL in case of emergency landings (in combat situations ) IL76 could be better?...
Tactical transports may, in the course of carrying out their role, have to come within range of MANPADS & ground fire, & use short rough strips in danger zones. AWACS should never need to, & if they do, whoever is responsible for putting them in that situation should be in deep, deep trouble.
Why buy a big, long-range AWACS & station it close to the border? Even Ladakh - more likely to be socked in by weather up there, & high altitude take-off limits T/O weight. Probably better taking off lower down, further away from the border, on a nice long runway, with more fuel aboard.negi wrote: IL-76 too isn't a bad choice as the rugged airframe and STOL capability means it can be stationed at small airbases close to the border and in areas like leh/laddakh.
Actually imo IL-76 was a natural choice as any civilian carrier would have meant involvement of Unkil (Boeing) or EU(Airbus) and at the time when the AWACS programme was envisaged I don't think anyone would have thought of US/EU involvement in the programme (especially when Unkil was kind of unhappy with Israeli assistance to India's AWACS programme)
I'm not puzzled by Indias decision to buy the Il-76 AEW. The radar, airframe, the radome & the mounting of the radome on the airframe had already been developed, & the Il-76 was already in service with the IAF, with obvious logistical advantages. The only competitors which had already been developed were US-made except for the Erieye, & the latter is a more limited system. A fairly obvious choice. My question is why the USSR chose to develop an Il-76 based AEW (& the Phalcon AEW uses the same radome & mounting, AFAIK, though of course the radar inside the radome is different), instead of one based on a Soviet-built airliner.