PLA Anti-Air Missile (SAM) systems
- Thread starter FORBIN
- Start date
Russians won't sell BMD missiles. Chinese won't need one from Russia anyway. If they're selling, certainly worth buying some for extra redundancy, review and potentially learning from anything it does well differently.
China has pretty good ASAT capabilities, HQ-19, HQ-26, and HQ-29 (however they might overlap) for midcourse or boost phase (unlikely and only for regional missiles) BMD. HQ-9B and S-400 for terminal phase. S-500 is a midcourse or boost phase (again depends a lot on position, speed, timing etc) and possibly a modern equivalent of Soviet BMD systems, one in what is surely several types. They are modular with various booster stages and warhead types. I imagine the Chinese and Ameircan BMDs to be similar although Chinese ones are certainly the most secretive out of the three. All we know of their existence is from their testing that gets reported by China or US where the USN surely have observed many.
Here my researches from published photos:
HQ-17 Heavy/Medium/Amphibious/Light Combined Brigades (H/M/A/LCB), Army Group (AG):
2HCB 71AG; 6HCB?? 81AG; 7HCB 81AG; 10HCB 72AG; 12HCB 76AG; 16HCB 74AG; 54HCB Tibet MR; 68HCB 78AG; 112HCB 82AG; 116HCB 79AG; 123HCB 75AG; 139HCB 77AG; 151HCB 82AG; 194HCB 81AG; 195HCB 81AG;
ACB: 1 74AG, 91 73AG, 124 72AG, 125 74AG
HQ-17A: 204HCB 78AG?; 115MCB 7871AG; 178MCB AG; 42LCB 75AG; 53LCB Tibet MR;
Thanks for that list! I went through the ORBAT threads over at CDF and indeed found images of HQ17 in most of the units you mention.
I even stumbled on this image under the 31st brigade of the 75th GA, which your list lacks and which may mean that even more units have HQ-17s.
Anyway, does all this mean that PLA's goal is to have a battery of HQ17 in every combat brigade?
I do somewhat hazily recollect that divisions, some years back when brigades weren't formed yet, had organic HQ7 units.
Since there's quite a few brigades left unmentioned in your list, those leftover brigades may then still feature HQ7s, while waiting to be replaced with HQ17s? Would that be a fair guess? Since the AD brigades at the theater level command still use HQ7s, it's not so wild to assume that even the lower tier units might still be using them?
and a completely unrelated question: do you guys see this threat listed when you click on the army sub forum? Because I don't. The only way to access this thread for me is via links in other places - like the alerts section if someone quoted me and the main page (in case the last discussion was in this anti air missile thread)
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
HQ 17 is definitely the AD missile highlighted in the ongoing Zapad exercise
Aug 10, 2021
China's Hongqi-17 field air defense system has caught spotlight at the ongoing China-Russia joint military exercise "ZAPAD/INTERACTION-2021" with its excellent performances in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Hongqi-17 Field Air Defense System Catches Spotlight at China-Russia Joint Military Exercise
553 viewsAug 10, 2021
China's Hongqi-17 field air defense system has caught spotlight at the ongoing China-Russia joint military exercise "ZAPAD/INTERACTION-2021" with its excellent performances in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Greetings!
I've been researching the PLA's SAM system, researching it from several sources, probably some of the systems are no longer part of the PLA's SAM system, but I'd like to address what PLA has today, such as available SAM platforms. If you can correct me, please. Grateful.
Q-7 - range 1-12 km
HQ-7B - range 1-15 km
HQ-12(KS-1A) - range 5-50 km
KS-1C - range 5-70 km
HQ-10 - range 9 km for subsonic targets and 6 km for supersonic targets
HQ-64 - range up to 18 km
HQ-17 - Range up to 25 km
FM-3000 - The 30 km range against aircraft and 20 km against missiles
HQ-16(HQ-16A) - range 40 km
HQ-16B - reach 45 km and 19 km of altitude
HQ-16C - range 70 km and 25 km altitude
S-300PMU - range 90 km
HQ-18 - 100 km range
HQ-9 - range 125 km to 27 km altitude.
S-300PMU1 - range 150 km
HQ-22 - 170 km range and 27 km altitude
S-300PMU2 - range 200 km
HQ-15 - Reach 200 km
FD-2000 (export, but it seems there are units employed in PLA) - range 200 km
HQ-9A - range 250 km
HQ-9B - range +300 km
Is this the complete PLA SAM system employed today?
I've been researching the PLA's SAM system, researching it from several sources, probably some of the systems are no longer part of the PLA's SAM system, but I'd like to address what PLA has today, such as available SAM platforms. If you can correct me, please. Grateful.
Q-7 - range 1-12 km
HQ-7B - range 1-15 km
HQ-12(KS-1A) - range 5-50 km
KS-1C - range 5-70 km
HQ-10 - range 9 km for subsonic targets and 6 km for supersonic targets
HQ-64 - range up to 18 km
HQ-17 - Range up to 25 km
FM-3000 - The 30 km range against aircraft and 20 km against missiles
HQ-16(HQ-16A) - range 40 km
HQ-16B - reach 45 km and 19 km of altitude
HQ-16C - range 70 km and 25 km altitude
S-300PMU - range 90 km
HQ-18 - 100 km range
HQ-9 - range 125 km to 27 km altitude.
S-300PMU1 - range 150 km
HQ-22 - 170 km range and 27 km altitude
S-300PMU2 - range 200 km
HQ-15 - Reach 200 km
FD-2000 (export, but it seems there are units employed in PLA) - range 200 km
HQ-9A - range 250 km
HQ-9B - range +300 km
Is this the complete PLA SAM system employed today?
I think the range HQ-17 is only 15 km, the same as HQ-7B but carried four extra missiles and maybe more capable at intercepting incoming cruise missiles like the tomahawk, JASSM, Storm Shadow, etc. I have not heard of HQ-15 as of now. I also doubt that the HQ-9A's range is more than 200km. The HQ-9B though does have a range of 200+km (exact range remains classified) against fighter planes, as a PLA officer mentioned to me during the 2016 Zhuhai Air Show.
Thanks for the corrections.
It looks like the HQ-15 is an extended range version of the HQ-10. The HQ-10 is said to have been developed as the basis for the S-300PMU-1. Therefore, the HQ-15 would be the equivalent of the S-300PMU-2 or the PAC-2.