Chinese Defence Today - Naval HQ-7 Ship-to-Air Missile

The naval variant HongQi-7 (HQ-7) is a Chinese copy of the French Thomson CSF R-440 Sea Crotale short-range ship-to-air missile. The contractor is 2nd Space Academy (now China Academy of Defence Technology). Since its introduction in the early 1990s, the naval HQ-7 has become the standard air defence weapon on most Chinese indigenous surface combatants. The missile is a point defence weapon with limited capability against low-flying anti-ship missiles. The PLA Navy may be developing a new short- to medium-range shipborne air defence missile with vertical launch system (VLS) to replace the naval HQ-7.

China obtained few examples of both the land variant Crotale and the shipborne (naval) variant Sea Crotale short-range air defence missile system developed by French Thomson CSF in the late 1970s. Two of the Sea Crotale systems were installed on a Type 051 Luda class destroyer (109 Kaifeng) and a Type 052 Luhu class destroyer (112 Harbin) for test and evaluation. These missiles are guided by the Thomson-CSF TSR 3004 Sea Tiger E/F-band air/surface search radar. Reverse-engineering of the Sea Crotale and its guidance radar began in the early 1980s at 2nd Space Academy. The Chinese copy of the Crotale is known as Naval HQ-7.

The first surface combatant to be fitted with a Chinese-made naval HQ-7 air defence missile system is the second hull of Type 052 Luhu class destroyer 113 Qingdao. The naval HQ-7 is almost identical to the Sea Crotale in appearance, and is guided by a Chinese indigenous Type 360S (also known as SR60) radar, which is the Chinese copy of the TSR 3004 Sea Tiger. Later the naval HQ-7 air defence missile system was also installed on the Type 051B Luhai class destroyer, Type 053H3 Jiangwei-II class frigate, and the latest Type 054 Ma’anshan class frigate.

The naval HQ-7 is a short-range air defence missile system designed to engage aircraft in all-weather, day/night conditions at a maximum range of 8~12km. The missile has limited capability to intercept sea-skimming anti-ship missiles at a much closer range (4~6km). Because the HQ-7 is only capable of point defence, it cannot provide air defence protection for other ships. 2nd Space Academy introduced an improved variant of its land-based HQ-7 (FM-80) known as FM-90 in its export name. The missile features an extended range of 15km, improved radar seeker, and new digitised fire-control. There might be also a naval version of the this missile but this cannot be confirmed.

Each ship has an eight-cell naval HQ-7 launcher installed on the front deck behind the main gun. The launcher has eight ready-to-launch missiles, and is fed by an automatic loader. On the early variant the missile loader is located on the deck behind the missile launcher, but on later variants the missile loader can be retracted under the deck when not in use. A total of 24 missiles are carried.

The missile is guided by a Type 360S E/F-band Doppler air/surface search radar with a maximum detection range of 18.4km. The missile use command line of sight with radar homing. In severe electronic jamming condition, the missile can also be directed by an electro-optical director using radio command.

The missile system and the search radar is connected via a ZJK-4 (Chinese copy of Thomson CSF TAVITAC) command data system. The system is capable of processing 30 targets and in conjunction with the radar system to track 12 targets simultaneously.

Missile dimensions: (length) 3.00m; (diameter) 0.156m; (wingspan) 0.55m
Launch weight: 84.5kg
Operating altitude: 30~5,000m
Minimum operating range: 500m
Max operating range: 8,600m (400m/s target); 10,000m (300m/s target); 12,000m (slow flying target such as helicopter)
Speed: Mach 2.3 (750m/s)
Guidance: Command + electro-optical tracking
Warhead: HE-FRAG with proximity fuse
Single shot hit probability: 70~80%
Radar detecting range: 18.4km
Radar homing range: 17km