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Updated: Wed Mar 10 13:29:25 UTC 2010
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APA NOTAMS ISSN 1836-7135
FD-2000 / HQ-9 SAM -
China's Strategic ‘Game Changer’
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Air Power
Australia - Australia's Independent Defence Think Tank
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Air Power Australia NOTAM
6th
December, 2009
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| Contacts: |
Peter
Goon
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Carlo
Kopp |
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Mob:
0419-806-476 |
Mob:
0437-478-224 |
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HQ-9 TELs with HT-233
phased array engagement radar (© 2009, Bradley Huang)
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Modern
Surface to Air Missile (SAM) systems are formidable area-denial
weapons.
They are the agile Kings on the
checkerboard landscape. While one SAM
battery searches and tracks, another shoots and guides. Others
move to new locations, denying
an enemy an effective attack.
These systems are networked, and may use diverse frequencies to
penetrate ‘stealth’ designs. They feature redundant elements, so if the
enemy
is lucky and destroys one element, others seamlessly take its
place.
The missiles are fast, high flying and
deadly, with advanced guidance systems and high resistance to
electronic
jamming. To further confuse and
deny an enemy a shot, realistic dummies and electronic decoys draw fire
away from
the real equipment.
China
has joined the select club of countries that indigenously manufacture
effective
SAMs. Initially drawing on decades of Russian research, they have
re-engineered
the highly effective Russian S-300PMU or SA-20 system into the HQ-9. With many obsolete SAMs to replace, China has built
a high-capacity
production line, and is progressively replacing obsolete SAMs with new
SAM systems.
The Chinese
SAM replacement strategy will generate a ‘China Price’ for the HQ-9. Once the production facility cost is
‘written down’ to zero, and with the research and development costs
greatly
reduced by drawing from Russian intellectual property, new generation
HQ-9 batteries will be sold relatively cheaply – perhaps half the cost
of a Russian
S-300PMU / SA-20 series SAM battery and a small fraction of the cost of
a US built Patriot Battery.
China
has an obvious vested interest in selling the HQ-9 abroad.
In many places, it will build influence and dependence,
and
China may choose to provide area defence as part of a foreign aid
package. In other places, China’s emerging
search
for raw material may require protection from air attack; area denial
weapons
are part of the required military capabilities. Sudan
is
a
case-in-point1.
Then there is the simple reality that good money can be made from
selling advanced HQ-9s into a globalised market.
Thus, the
Western democracies can expect a rapid proliferation of the HQ-9 to
places
where they would rather not have to counter such modern SAM systems.
The ongoing “Rise of China” shows every
sign of being a zero-sum-game, as Western military capabilities
progressively
erode, China's progressively expand, with the trend in superior air
defence capability
moving to China.
The
latest APA technical report
by Dr Carlo Kopp and John Wise, which explores
recently revealed Chinese military radars, shows that there is more
that we do
not know about China’s indigenous air defence weapons development
program
than we do know, but what we do know shows a rapid advance towards
mastery of state-of-the-art
SAM system technology. This study follows Dr Kopp’s recent technical report on
the HQ-9 design2.
The Chinese 60th Anniversary
military parade, held
on the 1st October, 2009, is now producing fallout as
Western analysts dissect the multitude
of new systems publicly displayed for the first time. Surprise
revelations
included the launcher vehicles for the YJ-62 and CJ-10/DH-10 Ground
Launched
Cruise Missiles (GLCM), new ballistic missile hardware, and
importantly, three new
acquisition / search radars for China's indigenously manufactured HQ-9
and
HQ-12 SAM systems.
The HQ-9, exported as the FD-2000,
and the HQ-12,
exported as the KS-1A, are both wholly manufactured in China, and
largely
designed by Chinese engineers, who as noted heavily exploited access to
Russian
technology during the 1990s.
The HQ-9 would qualify, in Pentagon-speak, as a ‘long
range double digit SAM’, in fact much of the basic technology in this
system
was licensed from the Russians. The missile, the launchers, the
vehicles, and
the phased-array fire-control radar are all derived from Russian
S-300PMU/PMU1, i.e.
late model SA-10 and early model SA-20 technology. The effective range
of this
system is around 80 percent of the range of the first
SA-20
variant, and is better than earlier US MIM-104 Patriot variants.
The radar makes use of all of the
anti-jam design
features the Russians cleverly built into the SA-10 and SA-20. One
Asian source
is claiming a basic Low Probability
of Intercept capability for the
radar,
which would make it extremely difficult to detect and track by its
microwave
emissions. And the 8 x 8 and 10 x 10 vehicles used make it just as
mobile as
the latest Russian SAM designs, for highly survivable ‘hide, shoot and
scoot’ operations.
The HQ-12 is a much shorter
ranging system,
intended to provide an inner layer defence, inside the footprint of the
HQ-9.
It is also mobile, and the radar looks to be based on much the same
technology
as the HQ-9, making it hard to detect, hard to track and hard to jam.
For all intents and purposes, the
HQ-9 and HQ-12
are modern technology SAM systems, designed for contemporary high
intensity
conflicts.
Continued ...
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“Hide, Shoot
and Scoot” - Mobility by Design
HQ-9
TEL,
stowed.
This high mobility
design
closely resembles the Russian S-300PMU TEL (via Chinese
Internet).
HQ-12
TELs
and
a
H-200
engagement radar (© 2009, Bradley Huang).
Type
305A AESA acquisition radar (foreground) and Type 305B planar array (background), both on
licenced 6 x 6 Mercedes-Benz NG 80 chassis (© 2009, Bradley
Huang).
Type
120 low altitude planar array fully deployed on licenced 6 x 6 Mercedes-Benz NG 80
chassis (©
2009, Bradley Huang).
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The three new HQ-9 acquisition radars are the Type 120,
Type 305A, and Type 305B, all self-propelled high mobility designs
carried on
licence built Mercedes-Benz NG 80 ‘North Benz’ heavy trucks – a wise
decision that provides reliable transport with a low implementation and
operating cost. Like the latest generation Russian designs, these
radars are
built to automatically stabilise on hydraulically deployed legs, and
automatically unfold and elevate their antennas using hydraulic rams.
The
Chinese have yet to comment on deployment and stow times, but five
minutes
would be a reasonable estimate. In short, these are true ‘hide, shoot
and scoot’
designs built for modern war-fighting.
The Type 305B is a variant of the
established and
relatively new YLC-2V battery acquisition radar, and appears to be the
standard
for the HQ-9 and HQ-12. This is a modern mechanically steered planar
array with
electronic beam-steering for height-finding. It is similar to a good
number of
US and EU radars in this category, but is built for greater mobility in
the
field, making it harder to engage and destroy.
The Type 120 appears to be
entirely new, but
substantially based on the recent JY-11B series. Like the Belarus
Vostok D/E
series, it uses a hydraulically elevated mast to increase low altitude
coverage. Interestingly, this design appears to operate in the L-band,
unlike
the earlier JY-11B, which it otherwise resembles. This change is
clearly
intended to improve detection range against stealth aircraft and cruise
missiles, most of which are difficult to detect at operationally useful
ranges
in the S-band.
The most interesting of the trio
is the Type 305A,
which Kopp and Wise assess to be most likely an S-band AESA based the
same
technology used in the KJ-2000 AWACS and KJ-200 AEW&C AESA radars. This technology
makes the radar equivalent in antenna technology to the new
Thales-Raytheon
Ground Master 400 series - reliable, difficult to jam, and difficult to
locate,
with agile beam-steering of the kind seen in US systems like the Aegis
SPY-1. As
we have seen with latest generation Chinese smart bombs, their most
advanced
products are very close to the US and EU built benchmark-designs.
Export variants of the HQ-9, HQ-12
and nearly all
PLA surveillance and acquisition radars have been actively marketed
across the world. Latin
America has been buying Chinese surveillance radars in significant
numbers. In
Asia, PRC clients like Pakistan and Myanmar have been sold these
technologies,
and Pakistan is claimed to be procuring the HQ-9 system.
What the future will bring is
clear - increasing
global proliferation of modern high technology Chinese built air
defence
weapons. These will be comparable to the latest Russian designs, but
cheaper in
raw dollar terms, and without political strings attached. Russia's
treatment of
Iran over the S-300PMU1 / SA-20A Gargoyle order is likely to drive Iran
directly into
buying HQ-9 systems, arguably just as effective, and motivate other
developing nations
in turn to do the same3.
Western
bureaucrats
continue
to
show absolute
disdain for Chinese built air defence weapons. While in the short term,
ignorance might be bliss, the pain will be felt acutely if several
dozen US
combat aircraft are shot down by modern HQ-9s in some remote corner of
the
world, by a
country the US considers to be incapable of such a defence.
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Notes
1 Please
refer http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?page=imprimable&id_article=26537.
2 Please refer Technical Reports APA-TR-2009-1103
CPMIEC HQ-9 / HHQ-9 / FD-2000 / FT-2000
Self Propelled Air Defence System and APA-TR-2009-1103 HQ-9
and
HQ-12
SAM
System
Battery
Radars on this website.
3 Richard D Fisher, Jr and Carlo Kopp, ‘Game
Changers;
Chinese
SAMs
and
Russian VHF Radar May Alter Air Tactics’,
Defense Technology International,
December,
2009;
also Andrei Chang, China exports new
surface-to-air missile, United Press International, 18th March,
2009, URL: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2009/03/18/China-exports-new-surface-to-air-missile/UPI-30271237410000/;
Andrei Chang, China's
strategic ties with Indonesia, United Press International, 15th
April, 2009, URL: http://www.upiasia.com/Security/2009/04/15/chinas_strategic_ties_with_indonesia/8275/;
News Report, Iran to
procure Chinese defense system, The Jerusalem
Post, 11th May, 2009, URL: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1241773221488&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull;
News Report, Russia 'losing to China
on Iran S-300 quest' , Payvand Iran News/Press TV, 10th May,
2009, URL: http://www.payvand.com/news/09/may/1109.html.
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(US DoD Chart)
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Air
Power
Australia
Website - http://www.ausairpower.net/
Air Power Australia Research and
Analysis - http://www.ausairpower.net/research.html
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