New Chinese Mobile Air Defence

JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY - MARCH 02, 2005
China develops mobile air defence system

CHRISTOPHER F FOSS JDW Correspondent
London

China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) is developing a highly mobile air defence system (ADS) called Yitian.

Yitian is based on the latest version of the NORINCO WZ 551 series 6 x 6 armoured personnel carrier (APC), which has been in service with the People's Liberation Army for some years and has also been exported in small numbers.

A turret, armed with four TY90 series surface-to-air missiles located either side of the sensor package, is mounted on the upper part of the WZ 551 chassis. The sensor package consists of a day/thermal sighting system, above which is mounted a new 3D radar that can be folded down into a horizontal position for travelling.

According to NORINCO, the 3D radar has a detection range of 18 km and a tracking range of 10 km. Targets can be tracked either in the electro-optic mode or in the radar mode with the latter being especially useful when there is a threat of high electronic countermeasures.

Yitian features an automatic target tracking and engagement capability and can engage targets with a maximum velocity of up to 400 m/s, with a claimed reaction time of six to eight seconds.

The TY90 solid-propellant missile has a maximum effective range of 300 m to 6,000 m with altitude coverage from 15 m up to 4,000 m.

The fire-and-forget missile is transported and launched from a box-type container and has four fins at the rear and four control surfaces at the front.

Once the missiles have been fired, new missiles are reloaded using a support vehicle.

Standard equipment for the WZ 551 chassis includes a nuclear, biological and chemical warfare protection system and a central tyre pressure regulation system that allows the driver to adjust the tyre pressure to suite the terrain being crossed.

A 12.7 mm machine gun is mounted at the front right side of the vehicle for local defence, with a bank of three electrically operated smoke grenade launchers mounted either side of the turret.

Optional equipment includes an identification friend-or-foe capability and the system would typically be integrated on an overall air defence system, which could allocate targets to a particular weapon system.

Although Yitian is being marketed on a WZ 551 series 6 x 6 APC chassis, it can also be integrated onto other chassis tracked or wheeled.

In concept, the NORINCO Yitian ADS is very similar to the French Thales Air Defence Crotale New Generation, which is in service with the Finnish Defence Force based on a Patria Vehicles XA series 6 x 6 chassis.

NORINCO WZ 551 armoured personnel carrier (Jane's Armour and Artillery)

The Yitian air defence system is mounted on a NORINCO WZ 551 series 6 x 6 chassis
(Source: NORINCO)

pfff looks like they took a bunch of our stuff and glued it on an APC

Originally posted by UnMature
pfff looks like they took a bunch of our stuff and glued it on an APC

imitation is the greatest form of flattery

Imitation and advancement is even better. Which is likely what they’ll of done, but we’ll have to see how it works once they test it, if they do and it’s not just another ‘idea’ from China.

Apparently the TY-90 is a supperior short range missile to anything the US is currently fielding.

The only comparable missile is the US "sidewinder"... which is antiquated and lacks many of the modern features of the ty-90 such as anti-jamming

[edit on 1-3-2005 by Lucretius]

An anti radiation missile will soon snap that up.

Also im sure the US has a super stealth unmanned electronic information gathering vehicle - forget the unmanned bombers or fighters.

It all depends on how well these missiles work within a real battle. If you had a large number of these, with helicopters, troops and tanks, they could cause a large problem for how a lot of Countries work. (Air bombing before invasion.)

Although, I'm sure China would take some damage as well, but it's a step in a decent air defence system for China. After all, they at present only have a small percentage of the Country covered from an Aerial attack.