HQ-9A

Description: The HQ-9A is a ground-based, extended range, mobile air defense system fielded by Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) as replacement for the aging HQ-2/SA-2 missile system. The whole system comprises tractor-erector-launcher (TEL), command post and sensors. All of them have been mounted onto all-terrain vehicles. The TEL vehicle carries up to four HQ-9 surface-to-air missiles sealed into launch tubes. The whole system looks like the Russian S-300PMU1 air defense system. Actually, it is considered a copy.

The HQ-9A missile guidance system responds to the Track-Via-Missile (TVM) concept introduced by the United States with its Patriot missile system. The HQ-9 missile's seeker target data is transmitted to the ground control station via downlink. The ground control station calculates the trajectory corrections to enable a successful interception and those corrections are sent back to the HQ-9 missile via an uplink. The HQ-9A air defense system has a detection range of 120 kilometers and tracking range of 90 kilometers. It can track as many as 100 airborne targets while engaging 50 of them simultaneously.

The HQ-9/FD-2000 introduced in 2009 and exported to Turkey under a $3-4 billion deal has been qualified to target cruise missiles at ranges between 7 and 24 km, air-to-ground missiles at 7 to 50 km, aircraft at ranges from 7 to 125 km, and precision-guided bombs and tactical ballistic missiles at ranges between 7 and 25 km. The Turkish air defense system is dubbed T-LORAMIDS and the deal must be confirmed by Anakara as of March 2015. The contract was cancelled in November 2015.