• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

PL-6 Air-to-Air Missile

According to the development trend of the world's air-to-air missiles, relevant departments in China carried out the development of the air-to-air missile equivalent to the AIM-9L - the Thunderbolt-6 - in the 1970s. The AIM-9L seeker used an indium antimonide device, which was cooled by nitrogen in the launcher. After launch, it uses the argon cylinder on the bomb to continue cooling, which increases the working distance of the seeker. Due to the improved performance of the seeker, the AIM-9L has omnidirectional attack capability, and Follow mode can be used. In the follow-up mode, after the radar searches for the target, the fire control computer converts the radar position to the coordinate position of the coordinate device and follows the radar position, thereby expanding the missile's attack range.

In addition, it also uses a laser proximity fuze, which is more suitable for fighting requirements, can control the explosion point more accurately and is difficult to interfere. AIM-9L has shown its greater power in actual combat. Once 27 were launched, 24 hit the target. According to the development trend of the world's air-to-air missiles, relevant departments in China also carried out the development of the air-to-air missile equivalent to AIM-9L. But because the key technologies such as infrared devices that were difficult to develop in a short time, in the end, nothing came of the Thunderbolt-6.

Due to the prolonged delay of PL-3 AAM development, the PL-3 AAM performance was already inadequate before its completion. A follow-up was planned to incorporate advance in microelectronics and lessons learned in aerial combat, which is based on the feedback fromm the Vietnam War. The reason for starting a new AAM was because of the inherit design limitation of PL-3 it was difficult to incorporate the technological advances planned to be incorporated. The program was designated as PL-6 and begun in 1975, before the PL-3 program was even completed. The main contractor was the 612 Research Institute (later reorganized as Luoyang Electro-Optics Technology Development Center (EOTDC)).

The first batch of missile was completed in 1978 and tests were successfully completed in 1979. The Thunder-6 air-to-air missile is an improved version of the Thunderbolt-5B. It is a maneuverable air-to-air missile with great maneuverability. It was planned to use in a new generation of fighter aircraft of the army. The appearance of the missile is very similar to that of Thunderbolt-5B, but its performance has been greatly improved.

However, the PL-6 met the same fate as its predecessor PL-3, in that during training and evaluations, it was revealed that PL-6 did not significantly outperform the PL-3. All the experience gained from PL-6 could be readily incorporated in the PL-2 improvement efforts, so there was no need to have an additional separate AAM program when the requirement could be meet by just one. Consequently, PL-6 program was drastically scaled back in 1981, and after very limited production, the PL-6 was terminated in 1983.

The Thunderbolt-6 air-to-air missile is a manifestation of the development of China 's airborne and missile weapons from high altitude to high speed towards combat air combat. It is an airborne missile weapon developed for the needs of Chinese fighters against new fighters equipped in the 1970s. The development of the Thunderbolt-6 missile was carried out in accordance with the multiple combat fighter models proposed at the time, and the ultimate reason for the failure to complete the development and test work of the project, except because there were some technical problems that could not be solved in the short term In addition, the overall technical performance and technological maturity of Thunderbolt-8 imported from abroad must exceed the target of Perak-6. At that time, China could not support excessive model development either in terms of capital or actual needs.

In the 1980s, the Soviet Air Force MiG-23 fighter was used to develop the J-8B fighter. The focus of the aircraft was to improve the performance of low and medium space combat. Therefore, an air-to-air missile with better performance was required to cooperate with it. At the same time, the missile can also be used to improve active duty fighters to deal with the improved maneuverability of MiG-23 fighters such as MiG-23MLD. However, the delaays of Thunderbolt-5B and the dismounting of Thunderbolt-6 indicated that China was still unable to develop such an air-to-air missile entirely on its own. Therefore, China took advantage of the favorable international environment at that time to introduce foreign technology to reduce the difficulty of developing new air-to-air missiles, which was obviously a possible choice.