Chinese Defence Today - HQ-61 Ship-to-Air Missile

The HongQi-61 (HQ-61) is the short-range shipborne air defence missile developed by Shanghai-based 2nd Bureau (now Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, SAST). First introduced in the late 1980s, the HQ-61 is China’s first indigenous ship-to-air missile system, and has been deployed on the Type 053K (Jingdong class) and Type 053H2G (Jiangwei-II) class frigate. The missile is obsolete in term of technology and has been replaced by the more capable naval HQ-7.

The PLA requested a short-range surface-to-air missile in the early 1960s to provide the low altitude air defence where its existing HQ-2 (Chinese copy of the SA-2) was not effective. The missile development was initially carried out by Beijing-based 2nd Space Academy (now China Academy of Defence Technology) under the designation HQ-41. Later the missile was renamed HQ-61. In 1967 the development was taken over by Shanghai-based 2nd Mechanical-Electronic Bureau. Initially the missile was developed with both land-based and shipborne uses in mind, but a decision was then made that the naval shipborne variant should be given higher priority.

The final design proposal of the shipborne HQ-61 was completed in 1970. The missile was installed on a single Type 053K (Jiangdong class) air defence missile frigate for test and evaluation. The ship has two twin-missile launchers located on the bow and stern deck, each with two ready-to-fire missiles, an automatic loader and a fire-control radar working in H/I-band. The mono-pulse fire-control radar can direct two missiles to attack one airborne target. If necessary, the missile can also be guided by the electro-optical director via radio command. A fire-control station is located inside the bridge of the frigate.

The HQ-61 development had encountered a range of technical difficulties, which had resulted in serious delay in the programme. The missile was not ready for operational deployment until the mid-1980s. The HQ-61 received its design certificate in 1986 but was not deployed. The improved HQ-61B with a 6-cell launcher replacing the original twin-launcher was installed on the four Type 053H2G (Jiangwei-I class) frigates, with no further production. Later indigenous surface combatants of the PLAN were all fitted with the more capable naval HQ-7.

The HQ-61 missile has four front canards mounted on the middle of the missile body and four larger delta-shape control surfaces at rear. The front canards and the rear control surfaces arrangement are not on the same geometric plane, but on a 45 degree angle. The missile nose containing the semi-active radar seeker is sharp for high-speed flight.

A typical shipborne HQ-61 launch unit include a six-cell launcher, a H/I-band Type 342 (NATO codename: Frog Lamp) fire-control radar, an electro-optical director, and a fire-control station. The missile system combat independently with no centralised combat data system to link it with other weapons and sensors. The missile launcher is reloaded mannually.

A typical target engagement would take place as follows: The target is first detected by target indication and radar vehicle. After being confirmed as hostile, the target is tracked and illuminated by the tracking and illuminating radar vehicle. When the target is within range one missile is launched.

Missile dimensions: (length) 3.99m; (diameter) 0.286m; (wingspan) 1.166m
Launch weight: 300kg
Operating altitude: Maximum 8km
Operating range: 2.5~10km
Maximum speed: Mach 3
Guidance: Radio command + semi-active radar
Warhead: 40kg
Single-shot hit probability: N/A