China’s Upgraded Y-9 Anti-submarine Patrol Aircraft Makes First Public Appearance

The Chinese Navy’s upgraded Y-9 anti-submarine patrol aircraft has appeared in military exercises for the first time and achieved initial combat capability.

 Key new features include and AESA radar and magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) enhancing its search, attack and survivability.

The new active phased-array radar mounted under the nose offers wider coverage, broader scanning range and longer detection distance than the older Y-9, Zhang Junshe, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Thursday.

A new MAD appears to have been installed at the aircraft's tail. The new MAD is smaller in size, reducing magnetic field interference generated by the metal itself, making maintenance easier and further increasing detection range.

In addition, a large number of sonobuoys are arranged along both sides of the midsection of the fuselage, capable of deploying up to a hundred buoys of various types in a single mission, forming an underwater listening network covering dozens kilometers and significantly improving detection capability against submerged targets, the expert explained.

Y-9 in submarine search-and-track exercise

According to the South Sea Fleet, recently, a naval aviation unit under the PLA Southern Theater Command organized multiple anti-submarine patrol aircraft to conduct targeted search-and-attack submarine training.

The exercise was conducted without preset scripts or fixed tactics, and involved coordinated confrontational drills with other units, covering maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare.

The South China Sea is more than 1,000 meters deep in certain parts and has far more complex sea conditions compared to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, making submarines harder to detect.

Therefore, the South China Sea imposes higher requirements on anti-submarine patrol aircraft. The new Y-9 variant should have significantly improved submarine search capability, attack capability and battlefield survivability.