Hongqi 4 / HQ-4
Hongqi 4 is a greatly improved design proposed by the Chinese National Defense Science and Technology Commission and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in the 1960s on the basis of the Hongqi-1 surface-to-air missile system; The basic structure is changed to a level 2 solid projectile using new solid fuel, and the wings of the projectile have also been greatly changed. The reaction speed, extreme speed, and range are enhanced, and phased array radar guidance is used as the target. Due to the adoption of a large number of new technologies and the expected high-altitude, high-speed enemy aircraft did not appear, the Hongqi-4 did not enter mass production.
In the 1960s, our army was facing severe air defense pressure. US-Jiang reconnaissance planes continued to penetrate into the mainland’s territorial airspace and were heavily equipped with high-altitude and high-speed combat aircraft from the strong neighbors in the north. Therefore, air defense weapons were the top priority for China’s military industrial units at that time. The imitation, improvement and installation of Hongqi-1 and 2 air defense missiles have been completed successively.
In order to further strengthen the ability to strike high-altitude and high-speed targets, Chinese researchers developed the Hongqi-3 missile on the basis of the Hongqi-2. In 1968, the development of "Hongqi"-3 was basically completed, and it entered the later stage of formal target shooting and acceptance. In order to track the advanced design concepts and development trends of foreign air defense missiles, as a pre-researched model of the "Hongqi" series of surface-to-air missiles, the "Hongqi"-4 mid-high altitude and long-range ground-to-air defense missile is on the agenda.
In fact, although the speed, shooting height and range of the "Hongqi"-3 meet the design requirements, its engine (secondary) The liquid fuel unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine is used. This fuel is highly toxic and highly corrosive, so it cannot be stored in the missile body for a long time, unless emergency readiness duty can be stored in the missile body in a short period of time. Temporary refills before the battle, while also refilling oxidizers and high-pressure gas, such a toss, at least more than two hours to complete the launch preparation. The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly and the fighters are fleeting, not to mention that the speed of the SR-71 is higher than M3 per hour, so it is too late. And once the launch is stopped, the liquid fuel must be pumped out quickly. And clean the liquid fuel tank thoroughly with clean water and dry it with hot air. All this is very troublesome. Therefore, advanced surface-to-air missiles in the same period in the world, such as the Soviet SA-3 and the American Hawker, all use solid fuel engines, which greatly reduces the preparation time before the battle. Another point is also very important.
According to Chinese academy’s technicians’ actual inspections on the battlefield in Vietnam, many American fighters did not only drop bombs when they were close to the target (because the risk of being hit by ground fire would increase). Instead, a new type of bomb is dropped at a long distance. In this way, the oblique firing range of the original "Hongqi-3" of 42 kilometers is not enough. Therefore, a longer range air defense missile is needed. Of course, there are other reasons that prompted the superiors to decide to develop the "Hongqi"-4.
"Hongqi"-4 uses a two-stage solid fuel engine, in which the transition of the two-stage connection is sealed and fastened together with bolts. The second-stage engine adopts the aerodynamic layout similar to that of the American Hawk surface-to-air missile, with 4 large swept angle delta wings and 4 large trapezoidal rudder surfaces, and the subsequent booster is equipped with 4 trapezoidal stabilizer wings.
Hongqi -4 uses a two-stage solid fuel engine, which is different from the "Hongqi"-2 and "Hongqi"-3 solid + liquid engines, and the missile launch preparation time is greatly reduced. The two-stage solid fuel engine of the missile adopts double-base solid propellant, which is composed of tetrahydrofuran plus aluminum powder and curing agent. The fuel tank of the first-stage engine has an inner diameter of 700 mm, a charge of 1750 kg, and a thrust of 38,000 kg. The fuel tank of the secondary engine has an inner diameter of 560 mm, a charge of 500 kg, and a thrust of 3,800 kg.
The missile adopts compound guidance, radio command + semi-active automatic homing. The missile warhead adopts a fragmentation killing system, equipped with a small disturbance adaptive autopilot, and uses a frequency-modulated and comparable radio proximity fuze to detonate near the target, forming a maximum diameter of 60 composed of thousands of fragments weighing 5-6 grams. The cone-shaped high-speed fragments of meters form a cone-shaped barrage to cover and destroy the target.
The "Hongqi"-4 has a speed of M3, a maximum missile speed of M5, a maximum firing height of 30,000 meters, and a minimum of 5,000 meters. The "Hongqi"-4 has a maximum oblique firing range of 70 kilometers and a minimum of 3.5 kilometers. The hit rate of the two bombs is over 96%.
The missile launcher is modified from the chassis of the Type 59 100mm anti-aircraft artillery imported from the Soviet Union. The tractor also uses the high-power off-road vehicle of the Type 59 100mm anti-aircraft gun.
The "Hongqi"-4 is about 10 meters long and weighs more than 3 tons. Because the missile is equipped with many "squeaky" precision instruments and solid propellants, it has high requirements on temperature, humidity, and vibration, so the missile usually needs Put it in a storage tube with constant temperature, constant humidity and shockproof. The wings do not have high requirements, so just put it in an ordinary packing box. When launching, take out the missile from the storage box and place it on the launcher, install the missile wings on the primary and secondary engines and then launch after passing the test. In fact, this program is similar to the "Hongqi"-2 and "Hongqi"-3, but compared with the above two missiles, because the "Hongqi"-4 uses solid fuel engines, the launch preparation time is shortened, and there is no significant impact on the operator.
The dangerous liquid fuel refueling program is eliminated, so the launch preparation time is reduced from 2.5 hours to about 0.5 hours, which greatly improves the reaction speed. At the same time, because it does not need to carry many auxiliary vehicles such as liquid fuel and high-pressure air charging, the fleet of "Hongqi"-4 is also much smaller than "Hongqi"-3 and "Hongqi"-2. It has 6 launchers in one missile battalion. For example, there are only more than 20 vehicles in total, which is much less than the more than 60 vehicles used by the "Hongqi"-2.
The towed mobile launcher of the "Hongqi"-4 is modified from the chassis of the Type 59 100mm anti-aircraft gun produced by China's imported technology from the Soviet Union. The tractor also uses the type 59 100mm anti-aircraft gun for military high-power off-road vehicles.
The "Hongqi"-4 guidance radar adopts phased array radar, which has the characteristics of multi-target, high coordinate measurement accuracy and anti-jamming. The entire guidance station is composed of radar, display, recording, computer and mobile power station. It is installed on several highly maneuverable off-road trucks. The development of radar and missile are carried out simultaneously. Later, there was another major breakthrough in the miniaturization of phased array radars.
Of course, the advantages of "Hongqi"-4 were not obtained out of thin air, and a lot of hard work is required. To cite a few small examples, a lot of energy was spent in the shell material of the missile. The outer shell of the "Hongqi"-4 missile is about 5 mm thick, but the inner diameter of the outer shell is more than 700 mm. The smelting, rolling, welding and machining of this large-diameter thin-wall special alloy steel: such as drilling holes in the shell, The connection of threads and accessories to the first and second stage engines requires high technical requirements. It is necessary to ensure accuracy and strength, especially to ensure that no problems can occur when the missile is overloaded during flight. Otherwise, the "folding arrows and sinking sand" will be all over. In addition, the inner wall of the fuel tank must be pasted with a layer of heat-resistant insulation material. This work is done manually. The worker must go into the narrow cabin and paste it carefully, and the seams must be tightly fitted. The inner wall must not be exposed to the shell. Otherwise, the high temperature of several thousand degrees will be instantaneous when the engine is working. Burn through the outer wall and the missile will be completely destroyed. It is also very difficult to refill solid fuel in the factory.
The fuel should be adjusted to a strict ratio to be thinner than toothpaste. The fuel hatch should be erected vertically, and the paste fuel should be slowed down from the upper filling port. Slowly and evenly inject into the cabin, there can be no even very small cracks and bubbles, because the surface area of ??solid fuel during combustion is accurately calculated. If cracks or bubbles appear, the combustion area will suddenly increase. It can cause an explosion, which is extremely dangerous. After the solid fuel is filled, the transportation and storage requirements are extremely strict. In particular, there must be no large vibrations, otherwise the solidified fuel will crack again, and the result will be catastrophic. In addition, the nozzle of the solid rocket motor should also be covered with a layer of special insulating material containing silicon and molybdenum, so as to ensure that the nozzle is not burned by the tail flame of several thousand degrees. In short, the development of various special materials required for the "Hongqi"-4 only took a lot of energy and money.
It is very troublesome to conduct a warhead power test. The warhead of the "Hongqi"-4 uses fragment damage and radio proximity fuzes. When approaching the target, the fuze detonates, forming a cone-shaped kill range with a maximum diameter of 60 meters. Aircraft or missiles within this range will be hit. During the test, several millimeter-thick steel plates are used to enclose a radius of 30 meters. , A semicircle with a height of about 4-5 meters, the warhead is installed at the center point, and a high-speed camera is installed in a safe place at the rear to remotely detonate. Then analyze the detonation of the warhead and the splashing of the killing fragments on the film, and check whether the fragments are evenly distributed on the target board per square meter, whether the fragment size is appropriate, and whether the penetration depth meets the design requirements. If it does not meet the requirements, it will be troublesome and costly.
After each test, a few tons of high-quality steel plates were scrapped, because there were craters on them, so the team can’t do anything else. Back to furnace. Every improvement has to go through repeated precise calculations. At that time, it was not like the electronic computers with fast calculation speeds. Fortunately, people at that time were very enlightened. They endured many "unnecessary" charges. Work hard regardless of pay and overcome many technical difficulties. At that time, no matter how small, important or not, military representatives participated in every experiment. They were very strict like the "Iron Bread" and almost refused to let it go.
Development and production of "Hongqi" series of surface-to-air missiles - "Hongqi" 1, 2, 3, 4, 61, "Hongying" No. 5 and other series models - were all produced and developed in Shanghai. In 1965, the development unit of these missiles in the Shanghai area was changed to the Shanghai Mechanical and Electrical Second Bureau, which later became the Shanghai Space Administration. In this way, the original Missile Research Institute (Old Fifth Academy) was divided into five research institutes, which were responsible for the development of surface-to-air missiles, surface-to-surface missiles, coastal defense (anti-ship) missiles, engines, and satellites. The division of labor has not changed much until now.
This fine-grained professional division of labor was correct, so as to avoid the passive situation of "grabbing the beard and eyebrows" that no one can grasp well. At that time, the five institutes of the Second Academy and most of the factories were in Shanghai and nearby areas. The meticulous and meticulousness of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang people (the main source of Shanghai workers1) has been well reflected in these workers. They have superb technical skills and are serious and meticulous in their work. At that time, Shanghai's light industrial products were first-class in the country.
According to the usual international standards, it takes about 10-12 years to complete the development of a new type of surface-to-air missile from the development to the factory mass production and the equipping of the troops. Due to the great socialist cooperation in China, the concentration of national forces for collective tackling problems may be faster. . In this way, by the mid-1970s, that is, around 1973, the "Hongqi"-4 missile had basically completed the main technical work. It was during the "Cultural Revolution" that the situation was very chaotic. To develop such a new type of missile that integrated high-tech technology at that time required joint research by many factories and research institutes across the country. Therefore, managers must continue to run across the country and contact various units for assistance. At that time, the traffic situation was also very chaotic. Managers often took the train for more than ten hours. It's not a big deal to be a little bit tired, but the political persecution is unbearable.
To give two examples, around 1970, the Independent 5th Division of the 4th Air Force requested assistance in the modification of the K-13 ground attack rocket produced on the aircraft at the time. It turned out that this rocket has a range of only 1,000 meters and did not have the ability to penetrate armor. After transformation, the firing range reached 3000 meters, and it had the ability to attack armor. The people of the Independent 5th Division were very satisfied. However, after the "September 13" Lin Biao incident broke out in 1971, some people linked this incident to the conspiracy to beat Mao Zedong's special train with the "Il-10" strike plane. This was a crime of decapitation at the time.
On another occasion, at the Jinjiang Hotel in Shanghai, Shanghai’s main leaders Ma Tianshui, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Xiuzhen and others convened a meeting of nine standing committee members of the Second Bureau of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering to discuss the development of the "Hongqi"-4 missile and report to Premier Zhou Enlai in Beijing. The chief technical officer of "Hongqi"-4 had been systematically speaking for an hour. After listening, Zhang Chunqiao said in a weird manner: "You talk about technological production with the highest level of truth, without leaking and impeccable, but without talking about revolution at all, you are a typical revisionist!"
In general, the "Hongqi"-4 surface-to-air missile system reached the most advanced level in the country at that time, and its impact still exists today. The development of the Hongqi-4 missile is progressing smoothly. According to the test procedures for surface-to-air missiles, by the end of the 1970s, the 01 batch of model bombs and a total of 5 tests were completed at the Air Force Weapon Test Base, which verified the maturity of the design plan and completed it. A test of 16 rounds of 02 batches of "independent return projectiles" was carried out, and an autopilot was installed on the "independent return projectiles" so that the missile can automatically find the target according to the set procedure. By the time the 03 batch of 12 rounds of closed-return missiles were tested, this time the test missile was equipped with all the warhead, fuze, autopilot and other devices, and the test was successful.
However, in the 1980s, due to the fact that there were still a large number of key points that needed to be broken through in terms of technology, and the index performance of Hongqi-3 and Hongqi-4 crossed, China’s equipment system was unable to undertake the simultaneous installation of two high-altitude air defense bombs, plus national politics. Economic system transformation, under the political factors of compressing armaments and developing the economy, the development of Hongqi-4 ceased to be developed and turned into technical reserves. However, the tuition fee of "Hongqi"-4 was not paid in vain. After 1981, the Second Academy of Aerospace improved the development of "Hongqi-4" one after another. Later, many individual mature advanced technologies continued to be developed, and finally Applied to the "Hongqi"-9 air defense missile.
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