PLA Anti-Air Missile (SAM) systems

by78

General
A new mystery SAM arrives at Zhuhai Airshow.

52471074325_3f1b059ea1_3k.jpg

52470884289_823eac5553_o.jpg

52471070940_5fe0ccaa3c_k.jpg
52470611106_8a63ed7f6d_o.jpg
 

Totoro

Major
VIP Professional
So two different missiles of roughly similar dimensions being disclosed right around the same time?
The one which got dubbed part of HQ-16FE has slightly different ends of the missile containers, when compared to this one on the HQ-9 launcher vehicle.

Don't know if both launchers use the wheels of same dimensions, but IF they do, they i'm getting fairly similar lengths.
361 pixels for container length versus 34.5 pixels for wheel hub diameter for HQ-16FE
and 312 pixels for container length versus 31 pixels for wheel hub diameter for this new HQ-9 launcher

length to diameter ratio is around 13.9 for new HQ-9 missile.
it's a bit harder to work it out for the HQ-16fe, due to perspective.
Still, the HQ-9 container does seem to be a bit bigger than HQ-9.

What's evident is the round canister end on the HQ-9 missile, suggesting presence of gas launch piston, which would suggest a cold launch method.

HQ-16fe canister, having flat bottom, makes it more likely we're looking at a hot launch system.

Still, having these two sort of similar missiles appearing almost at the same time might suggest there was a competition for the next gen compact missile and that one design got inducted into PLA while the other (losing?) design is getting showcased for export. That's assuming the size difference between the two is not very big. That's all heavy conjecture but still, it's a possibility.
 
Top