The KZ900 reconnaissance pod is an airborne

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

(SIGINT) pod, used by the Chinese military, that was first revealed to the public at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, in 1998. It was designed by Southwestern Institute of Electrical and Electronics (SIWEE) in

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

. KZ900 SIGINT pod is designed to collect radar signals over a wide band of frequency ranges, though the exact frequency band width remains classified, despite that the pod has been shown in nearly every airshow and defense exhibition in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Like the BM/KG300G ECM pod, the KZ900 SIGINT pod is also highly digitized, and can be installed on a variety of platforms from helicopters to heavy bombers. The system adopts modular design and with

open architecture Open architecture is a type of computer architecture or software architecture intended to make adding, upgrading, and swapping components with other computers easy. For example, the IBM PC, Amiga 2000 and Apple IIe have an open architecture supp ...

software programming, and it is fully automatic, though human intervention is also optional. The pod is designed to provide real time information on enemy electronic order of battle and can be integrated with other COMINT to form a comprehensive ELINT system, or integrated as part of ECM system. KZ900 is trainable and compatible with MIL-STD-1553B standard.

Built-In Test Equipment Built-in test equipment (BITE) for avionics primarily refers to passive fault management and diagnosis equipment built into airborne systems to support maintenance processes. Built-in test equipment includes multimeter A multimeter (also know ...

(BITE) function is also incorporated. The next generation KZ900 SIGINT pod is already in development, and is designed to MIL-STD-1773 standards.

References

Electronic warfare Radiofrequency receivers Military equipment of the People's Republic of China Aviation in China Electronic warfare equipment {{china-mil-stub