PLA Anti-Air Missile (SAM) systems

siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
Super Moderator
We have people literally taking videos inside VT-4s and JL-10 trainers(in flight and showing instrument panel data), so IMO, people telling accounts of engagement doesn't seem that far stretch. Also, war thunder leaks happen and that goes to show how bad OPSEC is even in the "better" militaries.

I don’t know if Uzbekistan and Thailand are good examples here… Then again UK and France do the same when Russians downplay their gear on Warthunder. Even a Chinese tanker got in trouble for this…
 

Zhejiang

Junior Member
Registered Member
I don't really know where to post this (since the Kashmir thread was locked) .
But this is an interesting comment I came across under a YouTube video

It's made by some person who claims his cousin is an HQ-9 operator in Pakistan.

He's talking about the brahmos attacks of 10 may here

Take everything he says with a grain of salt of-course.


So overall the hq-9b did great but the hq 16 was overwhelming



If his comment doesn't pop up through the link, try going to the newest comment to that video.

Thoughts?
I know for fact missiles including Brahmos, Scalp ones do that parts accurate but overall I would take what he says as a trust me but it’s definitely interesting and has some truth in it
 

ismellcopium

Junior Member
Registered Member
Here’s some speculation about the HQ-29. First, the obvious: due to its sheer size, it is clearly a (primarily) strategic focused system, rather than a counter MR/theater system a la HQ-19/SM-3 etc.

It’s been offhandedly rumoured a few times without elaboration that it’s a KEI-equivalent, but this claim is somewhat confusing. For one, KEI before its cancellation was intended (to my knowledge) to be a boost phase focused capability with secondary early midcourse ability, to complement other midcourse systems in US NMD. But obviously, the vast majority of (if not all) strategic BMs launched against China would not be accessible in boost phase, likely even for India. KEI itself was cancelled in large part due to how impractical a surface based boost phase intercept was realized to be. So I don’t see much of a realistic boost/post-boost role for this system.

That leaves midcourse. If this is the case, I have a strong suspicion that it likely features a NGI/MOKV type multi KKV payload, for two reasons. One is the number of MIRVs facing China is so vast a single KV per ABM design wouldn’t put a meaningful dent in it, so I fail to see how procuring this would make financial or operational sense. 2, GBI is 20+ year old tech, and I highly doubt a system this new would follow the same approach. Overall it just seems implausible they’d invest in this system yet not incorporate multi KV tech at this time especially when it’s been floating around in the western space for decades in multiple iterations & soon to be deployed with NGI. Multi KV also seems like innately not as challenging a tech as some other things China has been pulling off recently. Eg, NGI is delayed but apparently because of the booster motor not difficulty of core features. Of course, HQ-29 being in service would mean China 弯道超车’d the US to a finished product yet again.
To be charitable to the rumours, I guess they may have also been alluding to HQ-29 being fast-accelerating similar to KEI, or merely that they’re both road-mobile. Also, technically they’re not fully in conflict because the MKV supposedly could’ve equipped KEI as well; I suppose it’s not inconceivable they did also incorporate some sort of boost phase capability into HQ-29’s design.

I also just found
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
CCTV segment that seems to reinforce my interpretation. They clearly state it as being an ICBM-capable ABM but only mention it being a midcourse system and characterize it as like a GBI but mobile.

I’m also curious to see how the US might respond to this, given that if the above is true it may begin to approach a meaningful degradation of their deterrent, at least if China builds more than a handful of these with it being a much more cost effectively scalable BMD. (Both China & Russia have complained numerous times about current-iteration GMD which this should be far surpassing.) Deploying more warheads seems like a very possible reaction.

Curious if anyone has thoughts or has seen more credible rumours about this thing, and also if there have ever been any known test events that could’ve corresponded to a multi-RV intercept test (obviously the chance there have been one(s) that neither side announced is also very high).
 

Wrought

Senior Member
Registered Member
Here’s some speculation about the HQ-29. First, the obvious: due to its sheer size, it is clearly a (primarily) strategic focused system, rather than a counter MR/theater system a la HQ-19/SM-3 etc.

It’s been offhandedly rumoured a few times without elaboration that it’s a KEI-equivalent, but this claim is somewhat confusing. For one, KEI before its cancellation was intended (to my knowledge) to be a boost phase focused capability with secondary early midcourse ability, to complement other midcourse systems in US NMD. But obviously, the vast majority of (if not all) strategic BMs launched against China would not be accessible in boost phase, likely even for India. KEI itself was cancelled in large part due to how impractical a surface based boost phase intercept was realized to be. So I don’t see much of a realistic boost/post-boost role for this system.

That leaves midcourse. If this is the case, I have a strong suspicion that it likely features a NGI/MOKV type multi KKV payload, for two reasons. One is the number of MIRVs facing China is so vast a single KV per ABM design wouldn’t put a meaningful dent in it, so I fail to see how procuring this would make financial or operational sense. 2, GBI is 20+ year old tech, and I highly doubt a system this new would follow the same approach. Overall it just seems implausible they’d invest in this system yet not incorporate multi KV tech at this time especially when it’s been floating around in the western space for decades in multiple iterations & soon to be deployed with NGI. Multi KV also seems like innately not as challenging a tech as some other things China has been pulling off recently. Eg, NGI is delayed but apparently because of the booster motor not difficulty of core features. Of course, HQ-29 being in service would mean China 弯道超车’d the US to a finished product yet again.
To be charitable to the rumours, I guess they may have also been alluding to HQ-29 being fast-accelerating similar to KEI, or merely that they’re both road-mobile. Also, technically they’re not fully in conflict because the MKV supposedly could’ve equipped KEI as well; I suppose it’s not inconceivable they did also incorporate some sort of boost phase capability into HQ-29’s design.

I also just found
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
CCTV segment that seems to reinforce my interpretation. They clearly state it as being an ICBM-capable ABM but only mention it being a midcourse system and characterize it as like a GBI but mobile.

I’m also curious to see how the US might respond to this, given that if the above is true it may begin to approach a meaningful degradation of their deterrent, at least if China builds more than a handful of these with it being a much more cost effectively scalable BMD. (Both China & Russia have complained numerous times about current-iteration GMD which this should be far surpassing.) Deploying more warheads seems like a very possible reaction.

Curious if anyone has thoughts or has seen more credible rumours about this thing, and also if there have ever been any known test events that could’ve corresponded to a multi-RV intercept test (obviously the chance there have been one(s) that neither side announced is also very high).

US arsenal is far too large to be deterred by a handful of GBI-equivalents. Given that HQ-29 is big and exo-atmospheric, it's probably aimed more towards ASAT work. Alternatively, even a handful would be useful against modest arsenals like India's.
 

Mmmeeeto

Junior Member
Registered Member
Does anyone know if it is possible to deploy HQ-9B and HQ-9C missiles from the same launcher system in a mixed battery?

Because I saw a post on the Red Note app claiming an “HQ-9CE” missile was displayed at a UAE defence expo, coupled with this image

1000058402.jpg
I couldn't find a better quality image

I think a system of this kind will be very practical and convenient, especially as an export system.
 

F=XX Corsair

New Member
Registered Member
Does anyone know if it is possible to deploy HQ-9B and HQ-9C missiles from the same launcher system in a mixed battery?

Because I saw a post on the Red Note app claiming an “HQ-9CE” missile was displayed at a UAE defence expo, coupled with this image

View attachment 161216
I couldn't find a better quality image

I think a system of this kind will be very practical and convenient, especially as an export system.
It's the HQ-9BE that was shown at last year's Zhuhai, the smaller missile designation is unknown though, it's taller and larger than the quad-packable FK-3B.

54137673548_663185aa25_k.jpg54137674248_07c64cffd5_k.jpg54137721714_9e9ed1dac7_k.jpg
 
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