What do we know about China’s most advanced early warning plane, the KL-3000?

China’s newest airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, the KJ-3000 could be key to the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to deliver lethal strikes from ultra-long ranges.

Its design is based on a modified version of the country’s long-serving transport plane the Y-20B, and its most distinctive addition is a radar dome on top of the fuselage that hides an array of advanced equipment.

China is trying to rapidly grow its fleet of airborne information command centres with at least three new models in the pipeline: the lightweight shipborne KJ-600, the medium-sized KJ-700, and the largest and most advanced KJ-3000.

Although other militaries, including the United States, have decided the planes are not suited for modern warfare, Beijing appears committed to the strategy, with footage of the aircraft circulating on social media giving a series of clues about what the next generation of the aircraft will be able to do.

Blurry footage of the KJ-3000 first emerged on social media on December 27.

The aircraft, painted in the green-yellow typically used for prototypes, has a similar outline to the Y-20B – a transport plane sometimes known as the “chubby girl” – with the addition of a rotodome, a rotating saucer-shaped fixture typically fitted with radar equipment.