Basic Information

Name

HQ-6D Chinese Surface-to-Air Missile System

Designation

HQ-6D

Alternate Designation

HQ-6D

Equipment Type

Surface-to-Air Electronic Jamming System

Manufacturer

Shanghai Academy of Science and Technology

Date of Introduction

1989

Description

The HQ-6D is the latest development of the family, and it is basically an HQ-64 system with an addition of a command vehicle. Each command vehicle is able to command & control up to four HQ-64 batteries, thus linking up independent HQ-64 batteries to form an integrated air defense network, and each HQ-6D network can, in turn, be integrated into a larger air defense network. The standard time that the HQ-6D SAM system takes from traveling orders to being ready to fire is less than 15 minutes, but a highly skilled crew can reduce this time to just 9 minutes.

Ground Specifications

Active Protection None

Variants

HQ-6 The HQ-6 ("Red flag-6") was the second member of the LY-60/PL-10/HQ-6/6D/64/DK-10 family developed, but it entered service before the air-to-air version PL-10, despite an earlier start by the PL-10. The entire SAM system consists of four truck mounted radars (one search/surveillance radar and three tracking/fire control radars), one power supply truck, and six transporter erector launchers (TEL)s. The missile itself is directly derived from the air-to-air version PL-11. Unlike the Italian Aspide which uses containers as launchers, HQ-6 uses missile launching rails (MLR) instead, and each truck-mounted launcher has two MLRs/missiles.

K/AKK-10 During the mid-life upgrade of PL-10, the semi-active radar homing (SARH) seeker was replaced by active radar homing (ARH) seekers, resulting in two versions, one with a Russian ARH seeker, the other with a domestic Chinese ARH seeker. The K/AAK-10 is the version with an active seeker, but it's not clear if it is the one with a foreign ARH seeker or a domestic seeker. In October 1994 the new medium-low-altitude surface-to-air missile system, the "Lieying (Falcon)-60," was deployed to China's air defense troops. The system is mainly intended for the interception of military aircraft and missiles flying in medium-low altitude. It a command control system with artificial interference capability thanks to the use of microprocessor intelligent module technology. This technology is not found on existing medium-low-altitude air defense missiles of other countries. The "Lieying-60" search radar can can simultaneously track up to 40 targets, and the tracking radar is able to simultaneously track 12 targets, and engage three targets at once. The use of the moving target tracking processing system and frequency agility technology also gives the system good anti-jamming capability. The LY60N SAM is being deployed in place of the HQ61 SAM used in the Jiangwei-class frigates. Compared with the HQ61 with a range of 12 kilometers and maximum altitude of 10 kilometers, the LY60 has a range of 18 kilometers and reaches a maximum altitude of 12 kilometers. The LY60N is installed in Jiangwei B-class frigates that have recently been placed in service. Every launch system features a sextuple launchers and each launcher contains four LY60N missiles, for a total of 24 missiles. The wings of the LY60N are foldable. In comparison, the LY60 of the ground army version features a quadruple launchers, each of its launcher contains one missile, and its missile wing is not foldable. The system will be adopted as the shipborne vertically-launched air defense system of the Chinese Navy's "Luhai"-class missile destroyers, with at least eight vertical launch barrels with a total of 32 missiles. China initially tried to address its beyond visual range [BVR] needs by reverse-engineering the semiactive AIM-7 Sparrow, in a program designated PL-10. This effort proved unsuccessful. China then purchased around 100 Aspide missiles from Italy--the eventual intent being the license-manufacture of the missile, to be known as PL-11. This deal collapsed as a result of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The Air Force version of the LY-60 is the FD-60 semi-active radar-guided air-to-air missile carried by the J8B fighter plane, which is very similar to the Aspide AAM of Italy in appearance. This missile, which is evidently also known as the PL-10 [Pili = Thunderbolt, or Pen Lung = Air Dragon] medium range air-to-air missile is a Chinese copy of the Italian Aspide, which was developed from the American AIM-7E Sparrow. The bodies of the two missiles are generally similar, though the wings of the air-to-air PL-10 mirror those of the Sparrow, while the LY-60 wings have evidently been truncated to improve storage. The application of the same missile to both air-to-air and ship-to-air applications emulates the American practice with the Sparrow, which started life as an air-to-air missile with subsequent shipboard deployments. In addition, the Shanghai Academy has also developed a portable ground-to-air version called the FY-60.

HQ-64 The HQ-64 is an improved version of the HQ-6, utilizing experience gained from LY-60, with firepower doubled by increasing the number of missiles for each truck mounted launcher from two to four, and by replacing the MLR mounting by missiles in container box launchers. Both the missile and TELs are directly developed from the LY-60. Although the missile is smaller than that of the HQ-6, the performance actually improved due to technological advances. HQ-64 passed state certification test and was accepted into Chinese service in 2001. The reaction time for the system in fully automated mode is 9 seconds and the maximum speed of the missile is increased to Mach 4. Other improvements is mainly concentrated on ECCM capability, and many Chinese internet sources have claimed (yet to be confirmed) that the HQ-64 is derived from HQ-6-4, meaning 4 missiles (for each launcher) version the HQ-6.

HQ-6D The HQ-6D is the latest development of the family, and it is basically a HQ-64 system with an addition of a command vehicle. Each command vehicle is able to command & control up to four HQ-64 batteries, thus linking up independent HQ-64 batteries to form an integrated air defense net work, and each HQ-6D network can in turn be integrated into larger air defense network. The standard time that the HQ-6D SAM system takes from travelling order to being ready to fire is less than 15 minutes, but a highly skilled crew can reduce this time to just 9 minutes.

System

Alternative Designation HQ-6D

Type Surface-to-Air Missile System

Manufacturer Shanghai Academy of Science and Technology

Crew INA

Chassis INA

Displacement Time Less than 15 minutes

Emplacement Time Less than 15 minutes

Note #1 The entire SAM system consists of four truck mounted radars (one search/surveillance radar and three tracking/fire control radars), one power supply truck, and six transporter erector launchers (TEL)s.

Note #2 The HQ-6D is the latest development of the family, and it is basically a HQ-64 system with an addition of a command vehicle. Each command vehicle is able to command & control up to four HQ-64 batteries, thus linking up independent HQ-64 batteries to form an integrated air defense net work, and each HQ-6D network can in turn be integrated into larger air defense network.

Dimensions (Transporter Erector Launcher)

Note There is no unclassified information available that list the name of the The entire SAM system consists of four truck mounted radars (one search/surveillance radar and three tracking/fire control radars), one power supply truck, and six Transporter Erector Launchers (TEL).

Automotive (Transporter Erector Launcher)

Note The entire SAM system consists of four truck mounted radars (one search/surveillance radar and three tracking/fire control radars), one power supply truck, and six transporter erector launchers (TEL)s.

Missile

Name HQ-6D

Type Surface to Air Missile

Manufacturer Shanghai Academy of Science and Technology

Length 3.69 m

Diameter 203 mm

Weight 220 kg

Engine Rocket motor

Propellant Solid Fuel

Warhead 33 kg

Detonation Mechanism Impact / proximity

Operational Range 18 km

Guidance System SARH / ARH

Fire Control

FCS Name INA

Computerized FCS Yes

Direct Fire Yes

Indirect Fire Yes

Position Location System Yes

Protection

Hull Armor INA

Applique Armor INA

Explosive Reactive Armor No

Active Protection System No

NBC Protection INA

Smoke Equipment INA

Image Sources

Notes http://fullafterburner.weebly.com/next-gen-weapons/india-vs-china-military-balance-air-defense-part-1-chinese-sams; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HQ-6; http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2014/04/photos-of-day-hq-6d-airport-point.html;