Chinese Navy’s “one tube, four missiles” technology was displayed at this year’s Zhuhai Airshow. In the launch system on display, there are four different types of missiles in one tube: CM-103 new missile, HHQ-9E long-range air-ship missile, CM-802B subsonic anti-ship missile, FM-3000N close-range air-ship missile.
It was introduced that this model HT-1E general-purpose vertical launch system is a new generation of general-purpose launch platforms that can be installed on various types of ships, which is developed independently by China with full intellectual property rights.
It’s believed that the ability to accommodate such different missiles proves that the Chinese vertical launch system has achieved a new breakthrough in cold and hot co-racking launch technology.
If a similar system is used on the Type 055 destroyer, the latter will be able to carry 448 missiles with 112 vertical launch units under full load, plus another 24 “HQ-10” missiles, the full load of Type 055 can reach 472 missiles, which is a proper “mobile ammunition depot” at sea.
At that time, the Type 055 can be equipped with different types of missiles for air defense, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and ground attack to strike targets in different areas according to the battle mission. It can carry more mid-range anti-missile missiles, anti-satellite missiles, long-range anti-aircraft missiles and land-attack cruise missiles, etc., while keeping the total air defense effectiveness unchanged.
The 64-unit Type 052D, which originally required four groups of eight vertical launch units to accommodate air defense missiles, can now free up at least 16 vertical launch units for other missiles, giving the Type 052D room to carry land-attack cruise missiles and anti-missile missiles.
The U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyers would have 384 missiles even with four missiles per tube, while China’s Type 055 destroyers have nearly 100 more.
Among the four types of missiles for the launch system on display, the CM-103 missile is a long-range supersonic missile with a maximum effective range of 290 km, and the HHQ-9E has a strong all-round, multi-target interception capability to effectively protect the safety of ships and their fleets, and is capable of intercepting supersonic anti-ship missiles and striking surface ships within 40 km. The maximum effective range has been increased from 180km to 290km.
The FM-3000N can be used to intercept fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aircraft, armed helicopters, and various anti-ship missiles, etc. The interception slope range is from 2 km to 45 km, and it has a multi-target capability to intercept 16 targets with 16 missiles.
Together with the new domestic “vertical launch system”, there was also a model of the “Integrated Coastal Defense Weapon System” on display.
The staff of the exhibition area of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) introduced the “Integrated Coastal Defense Weapon System”, which includes the charge, launch, detection and electronic countermeasure units, and is an integrated, modular and systematic overall solution for the coastal defense system, covering command and control, launch control, fire strike, target detection and electronic countermeasure, highly integrated with sub and super face-to-face missiles, and can be flexibly mounted and dismounted on ships, standard truck chassis or directly fixed.