May 18, 2020
Flying Radars Born: All Thanks to the Secretive Project Cadillac
Now that's a nice name for a high-tech project.
by Michael Peck
Key point: Airborne radar would help with the detection of enemy formations. It would also help with the weather.
What is that strange-looking aircraft, that looks like an airliner with a giant mushroom perched on top? From that giant mushroom perched high up in the sky, perhaps over Iraq or Syria or the South China Sea, invisible beams of radiation stream in all directions.
Be it America's AWACS, Russia's A-50 or China's KJ-2000, flying radar stations have become a fact of life in modern warfare. From their high-altitude vantage point, Airborne Early Warning & Control, or AEW&C, aircraft can peer into places that ground-based radars can't. Utilizing their radar data, they can function as aerial command posts to manage an air battle with a speed and efficiency that 1918 or 1945 air commanders could only dream of.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/flying-radars-born-all-thanks-secretive-project-cadillac-155241
