A brigade of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) 73rd Group Army conducts live-fire drills of a new air defense weapon system in the Gobi Desert in northwest China. Photo: Screenshot from the military channel of CCTV News

A foreign media report on Sunday followed in on a report from an official Chinese media on Friday about the first live-fire assessment of a new air defense weapon system, claiming the system to be the HQ-16F missile.

Singaporean media outlet Lianhe Zaobao claimed on Sunday that it is believed the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command has deployed the new-type HQ-16F air defense missile, citing a report by China Central Television (CCTV) News on Friday. Lianhe Zaobao further claimed that the comprehensive capabilities of the HQ-16F is comparable to the US' Patriot air defense missile system.

The original report from military channel of CCTV News said that a brigade of the PLA 73rd Group Army, which is under the PLA Eastern Theater Command, traveled long-distance from the southeastern coast to the Gobi Desert in the northwest to conduct a full-element, full-process live-fire exercise of a new air defense weapon system. This marks the first time the unit has tested the new system in a live-fire, combat-oriented environment in the unfamiliar terrain of the Gobi Desert.

The troops faced challenges such as complex local terrain and electromagnetic interference, precisely intercepting and destroying multiple types of targets, fully validating the new equipment's combat effectiveness and the unit's all-domain operational capabilities, said the CCTV News.

Footage from the report showed the unit using wheeled mobile launch vehicles of a modified version of the HQ-16 air defense missile system for live-fire testing. 

Although CCTV News did not explicitly name the system's specific model, a blurred nameplate in the video footage identified it as the HQ-16F missile, Lianhe Zaobao noted, citing the South China Morning Post. 

Furthermore, the missile's wingless aerodynamic configuration closely matched that of the export-oriented HQ-16FE medium-to-long-range air defense missile system, the fourth-generation advanced air defense weapon system, displayed at the 14th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, in 2022, according to the Lianhe Zaobao report and a report by the military channel of CCTV News on November 12, 2022.

"The first feature of the HQ-16FE system is its powerful combat capability, integrating air defense and anti-missile functions. It can engage a wide range of targets, including manned and unmanned combat aircraft, precision-guided munitions, and, most notably, tactical ballistic missiles. Its operational performance stands out among comparable air defense systems both in China and abroad," Zhuang Guoping from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the developer of the HQ-16FE system, was quoted by the CCTV News in November 2022 as saying.

In addition, the system boasts a high level of information integration, enabling fully automated operations from early warning detection, target identification, and intelligent decision-making to fire interception. It also features strong anti-jamming capabilities, allowing it to recognize jamming attempts and actively counter them, effectively shifting from defense to offense, Zhuang said.

Compared with its predecessors, the HQ-16FE has a longer range and a stronger anti-deception capability, the Global Times learned from its maker at the Airshow China 2022.

Global Times