PLAAF Munitions

Chaminuka said:

Apparently its on this video :

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Thanks for posting the video, that brings a whole new dimension to this weapon.

For those who don't speak Chinese, here is a brief summary of what was said in that video.

The interview is with an Engineer Zhang, who is one of the engineers on the project team that developed the CM-400AKG.

Key Missile stats:
-Range: 100-240km
-Speed: Up to 5.5M
-Diameter: 400mm (zhang did not say if this is with or without fins, but I think it's pretty obvious that this is without fins)
-Length: 5.2m
-Weight: 900kg (approx)
-Guidance: Inertia + Terminal, Terminal guidance methods include: Passive Radar, IR or Visible light (I assume he meant TV guidance).

Other useful bits include repeated emphasis that the missile's entire flight is within the atmosphere (so this isn't an air launched ballistic missile).

Interestingly, when asked to give examples of the kinds of targets the CM-400AKG might be used against, Zhang listed mostly land based high value fixed targets, like command centers, bridges, air defense radar, or even ship borne radar.

With everyone jumping on the 'carrier killer' bandwagon, it appears that the anti-radiation element of this missile's capabilities have been completely overlooked, but I think that the fact that this missile can be configured to be used a 240km M5.5 anti-radiation missile is by far the biggest and most important revelation from the whole interview (maybe the whole air show). The PLA is still relying mainly on YJ82s and YJ62s for AShM work because the CM-400AKG is not primarily an anti-ship missile.

Instead of calling the CM-400AKG a 'carrier killer' a far more appropriate nickname might be 'patriot killer'.

Considering China's access to Russian S300 missile systems and the specs of the missile, if Pakistan also has the ARM version of the CM-400AKG, its impact on the balance of military power in the region could be profound as could potentially allow them to field an effective counter against the best SAMs deployed in the region.

The fact that China seemed to have developed an IR sensor that can function at up to 5.5M speeds is another small but important revelation that makes an ASBM seem more credible.

plawolf said:

For those who don't speak Chinese, here is a brief summary of what was said in that video.

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Thank you, from someone who can't access it from my office.

one important item rarely discuss was the use of cyber weapon against air defense.
BAE develop 3 kind of cyber weapon against integrated air defense.Suter-1,suter-2 and suter-3.
US may have use suter-2 to infect pakistan air defense during operation naptune Spear or killing of ben laden,suter-2 technically able to take over the radar system.inject with "phantom target" to confuse the radar operator.suter-3 not only infect the entire radar system but also air defense missile.
israel also use several cyber weapon to shut down the entire syrian air defense which allow them destroyed syrian nuclear reactor near the turkish border.
It is possbile that China ,russia not to mention iran may have similiar program.

Huitong actually has an entry on his site now for CM-400AKG.

It's definitely an interesting looking missile, although probably designed for PAF requirements as the Jane's article would indicate.

But to be fair, this is not the only interesting ground attack missile we saw in the air show.

In my blog entry, I posted pictures also for TL-500, CM-501G, CM-506KG and LD-10. These are all interesting missiles should they find themselves into PLAAF/PLANAF in some form. We just haven't seen it yet.

You have to remember that China already has a supersonic ARM/AShM in YJ-91/A. It's probably more in the Mach 3.5 to 4 range.

We will have to see what ends up in service. We see plenty of PGMs, ARMs and stand off missiles in Zhuhai air shows, but very few of them actually end up serving in PLAAF/PLANAF

I thought I noticed before there was something different from CM-400AKG pictures. The pic on the placard has a longer set of fins.

Skywatcher said:

The CM-400 sounds a bit like the Skybolt air launched ballistic missile, albeit much smaller.

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Do you have pics of the Skybolt to share with us and to compare? Thanks.

The missile doesn't look big really, so there's not that much fuel in it, given it also has to carry the warhead, electronics & seeker. Reaching it's, quite massive, top spead of M5,5 will only be possible in the upper Troposphere or Stratosphere I suppose. And assuming that the low end of the range figure is the one for a low level employment, 100 km range for that kind of missile with it's high speed still seems rather far for it's, relatively, small size (unless I'm completly missjudging here). So it's maybe at least semi-ballistic. That would be my guess here given all the aforementioned points.
So I think it's terminal velocity is likely not to be almost hypersonic.
If the attack mode can be selected as low or arcing, it would really add some versatility. Somehow I don't think so, yet. But as has been mentioned before, this missile looks indeed like an asset inteded to kick down the door for a follow on AShM (or similar) barrage.

Scratch said:

The missile doesn't look big really,

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The CM-400 is bigger than the Phoenix AIM-54, which weighed only 470 kg and had a length of 4m.

OC-2 laser designator.what the different between WMD-7 LD and OC-2?more likely that OC-2 was develop by another corporation

t2contra said:

The CM-400 is bigger than the Phoenix AIM-54, which weighed only 470 kg and had a length of 4m.

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But then again, the Phoenix was an AAM wich "only" carried a 61kg warhead. Even the HARM has one a little bigger. Given that the CM-400 is apperently inteded to also strike fortified positions & ships and not just ship radars, I'd rather expect the CM-400 warhead to be in the 200kg+ range. So with the missile carrying a supposedly 4x heavier warhead and burning fuel probably even faster, given it's alleged high speed, I believe the fact that it's only somewhat bigger has to have a negative impact on range.
That's the reason why I believe the given range figures, in connection with the extremely high top speed, point at least towards a semi-ballisitc trajectory.