BEIJING: The Pakistan Air Force unveiled China’s HQ-17AE short-range air defense system in a promotional video posted on X on Monday. A Chinese military affairs expert said Pakistan has become yet another international user of the system, which will help address the country’s current gap in short-range accompanying air defense and enhance its capability to counter low-altitude threats such as drones.
Previously, Pakistan had already equipped and deployed China’s HQ-9 long-range air defense systems, including the HQ-9/P and HQ-9BE variants, Wang Yunfei, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times.
At the same time, Pakistan has introduced China’s HQ-16 series air defense systems, ranging from the LY-80 to the extended-range HQ-16FE/AE, which together form the backbone of Pakistan’s Army and Air Force regional medium-to-long-range air defense network, Wang said.
These systems are all critical components of national strategic air defense. However, the expert said that short-to-medium-range air defense systems are the core of point defense, and Pakistan’s capabilities in this area have had room for improvement. If adversaries penetrate the medium-to-long-range air defense network, troop assembly areas and armored formations might face threats.
As Pakistan has become yet another international user of the HQ-17AE system, the system can help fill this short-range accompanying air defense gap and strengthen Pakistan’s capability to counter low-altitude threats such as drones, Wang added.
The HQ-17AE first appeared at the 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, or Airshow China 2021, in Zhuhai, south China’s Guangdong Province, and is a domestically developed multifunctional air defense missile system.
Developed by the Second Academy of state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), the system is capable of intercepting high-performance targets and resisting saturation attacks, while integrating all functions into a single vehicle equipped with a wheeled off-road chassis for high mobility. It has been dubbed a “low-altitude aircraft hunter,” according to a statement CASIC sent to the Global Times in March 2021.
The HQ-17AE uses advanced technologies including an all-solid-state phased array radar, vertical cold launch missile system, direct force fast turn system and rotatable tail wings, giving the air defense missile system a fast reaction time and capability to adapt to complicated electromagnetic environments on the battlefield, its developer said, noting that the vehicle can launch while moving, and can interconnect with other vehicles into a network in combat, according to a previous Global Times report.
The report said each HQ-17AE vehicle can carry eight missiles and is capable of guiding four missiles to attack four targets simultaneously, as it has outstanding capability to intercept multiple targets.
During a military parade in the city of Kruševac in June 2024, then-Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said that the country would display the recently acquired HQ-17AE short-range air defense system from China. Vucevic also underscored that HQ-17AE systems would provide even better protection for Serbian airspace and would pair perfectly with the country’s most powerful air defense weapon, the FK-3. –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
