HQ-7 - History

History

In the late 1970s, China joined the Western powers in an informal alliance against the Soviet Union. At the time, China's military equipment was seriously lagging behind the Soviets in quality, and Beijing sought Western assistance to modernize its military. Countries such as the United States, UK, Israel, Italy, France, Germany and Australia responded by providing China with military sales and technological know-how transference, either openly or covertly.

China imported some land and sea versions of the Thomson-CSF Crotale missile in 1978-1979 for evaluation. The Thomson-CSF R-440 Sea Crotale SAM and Thomson-CSF TSR 3004 Sea Tiger E/F-band radar were installed on the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) destroyer #109 Kaifeng (Type 051 Luda-class) and destroyer #112 Harbin (Type 052 Luhu-class). The Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) found the Crotale system to be superior to the HQ-61 SAM, and instructed the 2nd Aerospace Academy (now the China Academy of Defense Technology) to reverse-engineer the Crotale, the 23rd Institute to reverse-engineer the radar and fire control system, and the 206th Institute to develop ground-based vehicle carriers for the SAM.

China was able to produce copies of the Crotale (HQ-7) missile for testing in 1983. It was certified for serial production in 1986-1988. China promoted an export version, FM-80, at the 1989 Dubai Aerospace Show. Through the 1990s, the HQ-7 was deployed at Peoples Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) bases, on PLA vehicles, and PLAN ships. It was PLAN's standard ship-based air-defense SAM for over a decade, until the introduction of the more capable, longer-range HQ-9.