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The latest Boeing 737 aerial command post, which appeared this year, was painted with the designation B-4052, a code number normally assigned to the aircraft of China United Airlines, which is under the control of the PLA Air Force. Tu-154M EW aircraft and KJ-2000 airborne warning and control systems, or AWACS, were all assigned B-serial designations. What is certain at the moment is that B-4XXX is the official designation code of the PLA Air Force.
It now appears that the air force has refitted at least two or three additional Boeing 737 passenger aircraft into aerial command units. One has a designation of B-4053. Under its fuselage are two large radomes and five blade-shaped antennae, which are presumably communications antenna and data link exchange systems.
With more aerial command aircraft and AWACS entering service, the PLA Air Force is now undergoing drastic changes in its mode of command at both strategic and tactical levels, as it acquires the capability of commanding the air force from the air. There is a substantial amount of evidence from photos showing that the commanders of several crack fighter divisions of the PLA Air Force have been flying Su-27UBK fighters and giving commands.
It may be because the Chinese have encountered major problems in their efforts to import Il-76 transport aircraft from Russia that the PLA Air Force has decided to use the Boeing 737 as a platform for its aerial command aircraft.
According to statements in official Chinese publications, the Boeing 737-800 formally joined China United Airlines in June 2007. China received its first Boeing 737-800 in 1999.
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(Andrei Chang is editor-in-chief of Kanwa Defense Review, based in Hong Kong.)
