The QianWei-3 (QW-3, or Vanguard 3) is the surface-to-air missile first revealed during the 2002 Zhuhai Air Show. Unlike other man-portable air defence missiles in the world, which commonly use the passive IR-homing guidance, the QW-3 is fitted with a unique nose-mounted semi-active laser guidance seeker. The laser guidance enables the QW-3 missile to be almost immune to the heat flares dispensed by the target and solar/ground heat. The laser guidance has a relatively low rate of tracking (15 degree/second) in comparison to conventional IR-homing missiles. However, this disadvantage is compensated by the fact that aircraft is also much less manoeuvrable when flying at ultra-low altitude.
The QW-3 missile body resembles the basic design of the QW-1, but is added with a second-stage booster at the rear end. This enables the missile to fly a much longer range (8km) at high-speed (750m/s) and also deliver a heavier warhead. The missile is fitted with an expanding-rod high-explosive fragmentation warhead with a killing-zone radius of 3m.
The QW-3 missile is available in two versions: the standard variant and the lightweight variant, and is designed to engage low-flying aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, air-to-surface missiles, anti-ship cruise missiles, and land-attack cruise missiles. Due to its much increased overall weight, the QW-3 missile is only suitable for tripod or vehicle-/ship-mounted launch.
