Threat of the Week
The QW-1 (Qianwei-Advanced Guard) Vanguard infrared-guided surface-to-air missile (SAM) is similar in appearance to the U.S. FIM-92 Stinger. It was first developed as a replacement for the HN-5 shoulder-launched SAM (the Chinese version of the Russian SA-7 Grail), but is also can be deployed on light helicopters.
The missile is similar in appearance to the Stinger, though it has only two forward control fins compared to the Stinger's four. It has four cropped delta wings at the rear. It is carried in a launch canister, the wings kept folded and deploying after launch.
The QW-1 is easily identified by the vertically mounted cylindrical battery/coolant module. The missile can be shoulder-fired, launched from tripod or vehicle- or ship-mounted launcher. The missile reportedly can maneuver at up to 16 Gs.
Guidance consists of a cooled, two-color infrared (IR) seeker with IR Counter-Counter Measures. The missile includes a short-lasting boost phase to clear it from the canister, after which the booster is discarded and the sustainer motor activates.
The QW-1 is operated by a two-man-team. The gunner carries the missile, while the operator conducts target detection tasks. Once a target is visually detected, a suitable launch location is selected and the end caps are removed from the launcher.
The gunner activates the battery and the coolant, cooling the infrared seeker to the operating temperature. At that point, the gunner tracks the target until the missile locks on, which is indicated by a flashing light and a tone.
Initial operational capability (IOC) was reached in 1992 as a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile. It was first displayed and offered for export in 1994. There is no confirmation that the missile is serving as an Air to Air Missile (AAM).
A naval SAM version has also been reported.
The QW-2 is a missile with all aspect attack capability and improved ECCM capability.
There are two types of seeker for QW-2: the first is the dual band infrared passive seeker first revealed in 1998, and an imaging IR (ImIR) seeker has been designed sometimes later.
The fuse is similar to that of QW-18. The minimum altitude is decreased to 10 m, thus further improving the capability against low-flying cruise missile and hovering helicopters that suddenly pop up from hiding.
The QW-3 is the Chinese equivalent of French Mistral missile, with fuse developed from that of QW-2. The missile is unique among Chinese MANPAD in that this is the only surface-to-air missile that adopts the semi-active laser guidance similar to AGM-114 Hellfire.
The gyro stabilized seeker provides very high degree of accuracy and is extremely effective against low altitude cruise missiles. The 15 degrees per second tracking rate of the seeker is relatively low in comparison for other
MANPAD for supersonic targets in high g maneuver at very high altitudes, but this is by no means handicapping the performance because such targets are not intended to be for QW-3, which is specifically designed to engage terrain
hugging helicopters and UAV's and other fast flying targets at extremely low altitudes, including supersonic sea skimming cruise missiles.
**Both the QW-1 and QW-3 have a vertically mounted cylindrical battery/coolant module while the QW-2 Battery coolant module is at a canted angle.**
