During this period her flight deck was used to test the E-2 Hawkeye, the Navy's new airborne early warning aircraft.

Among these were the new engines, radar, missiles, and the supporting early warning aircraft.

The PB-1W eventually evolved into an early warning aircraft by virtue of its APS-20 search radar.

One option would be to delay the purchase, but that might result in making the warning aircraft even more expensive later on.

In the late 1980s, the system was modernized and augmented with E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft.

However, the official Chinese report does not mention the exact type of the airborne early warning aircraft, only claiming that it was a 4-engine large military aircraft.

The E-1 Tracer was the first purpose built airborne early warning aircraft used by the United States Navy.

In 1967 China attempted to develop its first airborne early warning aircraft, based on the Tu-4 airframe.

Others claim that the primary use of the F-14 was as an airborne early warning aircraft, guarded by other fighters.

Also, some F-14s were modified into specialized airborne early warning aircraft.