Missile pictures with PLAN

With the PLAAF's 60th founding anniversary coming up, a bunch of TV programs have been showcasing newer portions of the air force. There is also a new museum showing different types of missiles in service with PLA. As part of the recent unveiling, we saw some pictures of the RIF long range SAM with 051C. These are probably the best pictures we've seen so far of the naval S-300 missiles purchased from the Russians.



The ones below showcase China's new shored based anti-ship missile YJ-62. The first 3 pictures show the command truck that comes with YJ-62 missile launchers. The operators in there get targeting data from reconnaissance targets and then launch the missiles to them. According to some sources in China, this was deployed along the shorelines as early as May of 2005. YJ-62's ship launched version can be deployed on the 052C class. I think this system is often overlooked in the face of the ASBM talk, because this missile actually has a 400 km range. The export version has a range of 280 km, because of the MTCR restrictions. Due to this range, it certainly poses a threat to possible USN ships in the theater and also all of the ROCN ships. And I think this is where the ASBM system would really help. By deploying a reconnaissance and data relay system capable of tracking ships from beyond the visual range, such a system could be used in both ASBM system and for your typical long ranged anti-ship cruise missiles. YJ-62's advantage over ASBM is its much lower cost, higher accuracy and rate of production. It obviously have major disadvantage to ASBM like shorter ranger and much higher chance of being intercepted. I certainly think that this missile along with the newly deployed long range LACM CJ-2000 are 2 systems that are totally overlooked due to the ASBM development.