PLAN Anti-ship/surface missiles

by78

General
A high-resolution image of hot-launching a YJ-18.

50743892188_1502e1f3a0_h.jpg
 

The Observer

Junior Member
Registered Member
Via Xinhui at the CDF.

This is complete picture of the YJ-83 with dual seeker.


View attachment 66768


The second one I do not know what the heck it is, although it is clearly an antiship missile. The intakes are different from YJ-83 and the fin configuration is different.


View attachment 66769

The YJ-83 with dual seeker looks really similar to HF-2. Even the position of the IR seeker is practically the same. HF-2 picture below

Hsiung_Feng_II_Anti-Ship_Missile_Display_in_Chengkungling_20111009a.jpg


As for the second picture, isn't it Russian Kh-35/maybe it's derivative? We can see at the bottom left at least 4 launcher containers, so I think it's a screenshot of the Russian Bal/Bal-E Coastal defense complex launch exercise. I'm not sure if Russia ever markets and exported Bal/Bal-E though. Picture of Bal launcher below.

BAL-E003.jpg
 

Tam

Brigadier
Registered Member
The YJ-83 with dual seeker looks really similar to HF-2. Even the position of the IR seeker is practically the same. HF-2 picture below

Hsiung_Feng_II_Anti-Ship_Missile_Display_in_Chengkungling_20111009a.jpg


As for the second picture, isn't it Russian Kh-35/maybe it's derivative? We can see at the bottom left at least 4 launcher containers, so I think it's a screenshot of the Russian Bal/Bal-E Coastal defense complex launch exercise. I'm not sure if Russia ever markets and exported Bal/Bal-E though. Picture of Bal launcher below.

BAL-E003.jpg


I think you are right in both counts.


Screen-Shot-2014-06-11-at-11.11.30-PM-672x372.png
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
Very interesting booster rocket trajectory - almost horizontal. Assuming it's footage of this "new" missile. Don't think it'll be hypersonic because of that.


But why does an "almost horizontal booster rocket trajectory" exclude a hypersonic missile?
 

ougoah

Brigadier
Registered Member
But why does an "almost horizontal booster rocket trajectory" exclude a hypersonic missile?

Well I'm certainly not an expert on this but so far the only information us observers have on hypersonic maneuvering weapons (so not counting ballistic missile warheads and various rockets) is that they are either air launched (think the weapon the H-6 was spotted carrying, Kinzhal, AGM-183) where they still carry a rocket booster. Air launched from altitude and at speed but still using a sizeable rocket booster that probably allows the payload to climb to even greater heights before detachment.

The other types are vehicles like the DF-ZF carried on the DF-17 rocket. Avantgard HGV is probably something similar i.e. some SRBM/MRBM/IRBM/ICBM boosted weapon. The Indian test HGV last year was also vertically boosted by a sizeable rocket.

HGVs are (from what I understand) going to go into Sanger trajectory or Qian Xuesen's "wave riding" within the atmosphere. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Either way, the vehicle will need to pick up enough speed to sustain a controlled and maneuverable hypersonic flight. Some of the best SAMs (non-BMD) really only accelerate themselves to topping out around Mach 4 maybe Mach 5. So if you're shooting your payload pretty much horizontally, your HGV needs to be powered either air breathing or with its own rocket propulsion otherwise it's unlikely the energy imparted will be enough to give the payload much range. We've never seen this method been done like those examples above. The DF-100's booster trajectory is also pretty much vertical.
 

ougoah

Brigadier
Registered Member
Then again there have been plenty of scramjet testing and years of "leaks" of new breakthroughs and milestones. It's not impossible that the rocket is simply boosting a small air breathing HGV with an efficient kinetic warhead. That should be actually easier to manage thermodynamically and cheaper than a vehicle the size of DF-ZF that probably will want to be carrying nuclear warhead/s. The kinetic energy alone should be enough to deal decent damage against a ship. Due to lower flight profile, range would be sacrificed for lower observability. But this probably can't be fired from a PLAN warship so coastal defense positioned on islands?
 
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