KD-63 Air-to-Surface Missile | Air Power

The KongDi-63 (KD-63) is a conventional warhead air-to-surface missile developed by China Haiying Electro-Mechanical Technology Academy (CHETA, also known as 3rd Space Academy). It is the PLA’s first operational indigenous “standoff” precision strike weapon which can be launched from outside the range of enemy air defence. The missile is launched from the PLAAF H-6H medium bomber, with a maximum range of over 200km.

Since its commission in the late 1960s, the H-6 bomber has mostly been used for tactical bombing role with conventional free-fall bombs. Beginning with the PLANAF H-6D version, this bomber was modified to carry standoff missiles. However, early missiles like the YJ-6 (C-601) anti-ship missile derived from the HY-2 (CSS-N-1 Silkworm) ship-to-ship missile had a very limited range and thus still exposed the bomber to enemy fighters and air defence systems. In the late 1990s, the PLA began to develop a new precision guided land-attack cruise missile with a maximum range of over 200km.

The new missile, reportedly designated KD-63, appears to be based on the YJ-6 (C-601) air-launched anti-ship missile and the land-based HY-4 (C-401) anti-ship missile design. Powered by a FW41-B turbojet engine, the missile is designed to hit large fixed land targets, such as bridges, command posts, and barracks, day and night, and is fired from 200km away thus reducing the dangers for the pilot and crew. Each H-6H bomber carries two KD-63 missiles on its under-wing stores stations, and the bomber provides the mid-course correction command for the missile via the datalink antenna underneath the fuselage behind the bomb bay doors.

The KD-63 missile entered service with the PLAAF in 2004~2005. The missile offers new offensive roles to the H-6, extending the service life of this 30-year-old bomber well into the next decade. The PLA is expected to deploy more KD-63-armed H-6 to replace those older variants with only conventional bombing capability.

The KD-63 features a large round missile body with a round nose and an engine inlet located under the missile body near the rear end. It has a pair of large delta wings and an X-shape tail control surface arrangement. The missile possibly consists of four sections: guidance, warhead, propulsion, and control surfaces.

The missile relies on inertial guidance during the initial stage of its flight and is assisted by satellite positioning (GPS/GLONASS) mid-course correction command transmitted from its carrier. However, there has been different views regarding its terminal guidance method. Early speculations suggest that the missile uses a TV-guided terminal guidance, which transfers the TV images back to the operator onboard the bomber during the final stage of its flight and receives the guidance command until it hits the target. However, the latest KD-63 photo shows a solid nose instead of the large glass window for the TV camera commonly seen on the TV-guided weapons, which indicates that the missile may use other guidance method. There are a number of possibilities including passive radar radiation, radio command, or even satellite guidance.

Length: N/A
Diameter: N/A
Wingspan: N/A
Launch weight: N/A
Warhead: 500kg HE
Propulsion: Turbojet
Speed: subsonic
Max range: >200km
Guidance mode: Inertial + satellite mid-course correction + terminal