First Picture of New Chinese SIGINT Plane

Japan intercepts new Chinese GX-8 ELINT aircraft

Mike Yeo

IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly

October 6, 2014

Japanese aircraft intercepted a GX-8 - recognisable by the arrays on its flanks - in international airspace over the East China Sea on 3 October. Source: Japanese Ministry of Defense

Japan’s Ministry of Defense has released a photo of a new type of Chinese intelligence-gathering aircraft that its fighters intercepted in international airspace over the East China Sea on 3 October.

Known as the GX-8 (GaoXin, literally High New, the name assigned to China’s Y-8/Y-9 special missions aircraft), the aircraft is based on the Shaanxi Y-9 transport.

The GX-8 is believed to be an electronic intelligence (ELINT) gathering platform, mounting four distinctive elongated antennas on its fuselage. It also carries a prominent nose radar and SATCOM dome. At least three GX-8s are known to be in service with the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) North Sea Fleet’s 2nd Air Division.

While the 3 October interception by Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) fighters is the first external proof of this variant’s existence, low-resolution photos of the GX-8 were posted online in late 2011. The type is believed to have begun flight tests in early 2011, while the first public sighting of it in service with the PLAN occurred in April this year.

Satellite imagery shows that various GaoXin special mission aircraft also frequently deploy to the East Sea Fleet’s airbase at Ningbo-Zhuangqiao in Zhejiang Province, whence they undertake regular flights over the East China Sea. This aircraft was likely operating from that base when it was intercepted by the JASDF.

China currently operates at least eight different GaoXin special mission variants with the PLAN and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). Based either on the Y-9 or the older Y-8C airframes, they serve in a wide variety of roles ranging from psychological warfare to airborne tactical command posts.