Robert Hewson
China's SD-10 beyond visual range air-to-air missile (AAM) may be a
considerably more capable weapon than has hitherto been believed.
Officials from the SD-10's manufacturer, the Luoyang Electro-Optical
Technology Development Centre (LOEC), say the SD-10 was designed
from the beginning to function with a dual-mode seeker operating in
distinct active and passive radar homing modes. If so, the SD-10 (and
current production SD-10A) are the first AAMs to enter service with
this acknowledged capability.
In lengthy discussions with LOEC at the Airshow China 2010 in Zhuhai
between 16-21 November, the operating modes of the SD-10 were
described to Jane's in detail. The missile has an active-radar terminal
homing capability which has been public knowledge since the first
details of the SD-10 were officially released in the middle of the last
decade.
What has remained unspoken until now is the missile's claimed ability
to home in on radar or electronic warfare emissions from the target
aircraft, without support from the launch aircraft or use of the
missile's own active seeker modes.
A LOEC official told Jane's that the passive mode was not intended to
be the missile's primary targeting method - and cited the risks to
friendly aircraft when relying on passive guidance mode alone. It is
not clear if the SD-10's seeker can continuously alternate between
active and passive modes in flight, or if it makes a less sophisticated
'one time' switch.
In the past, Russian sources have given Jane's a detailed account of
the assistance supplied by Russian design bureaux in the development
Bharat Rakshak • View topic - China discloses new SD-10 combat capabil...
Bharat Rakshak • View topic - China discloses new SD-10 combat capabilities
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of the SD-10. A LOEC official hinted that this co-operation is still
ongoing when he noted: "We [LOEC] have the capability to make the
seeker ourselves, but obviously we want it to be the best it possibly
can." He confirmed that the missile still relied on some (unidentified)
components that were sourced outside China, commenting that the
SD-10 was "like a mobile phone" in that respect.
Within Russia, the AGAT Design Bureau has developed several
dual-mode seekers (active/passive, active/semi-active) which it
began to discuss publicly only in 2009. AGAT's active-passive design
operates by switching back and forth between its two modes over the
engagement cycle. A central, circular active array on the missile's
gimballed seeker head is surrounded by a ring of seven smaller
passive detectors.
In passive mode, AGAT claims the seeker can detect an active fighter
aircraft fire control radar at distances of up to 200 km. This
significantly out-reaches the active seeker, which has a maximum
lock-on range of about 20 km.
Senior AGAT officials have remained vague when asked by Jane's who
has paid for their latest seeker development programmes - noting only
that there is no Russian application and no Russian state support for
them.
During the 1990s, China also gained access to the 9B-1032 passive
seeker developed by Avtomatika for the Vympel R-27P (AA-10
'Alamo-E') AAM. A melding of these two design inputs might explain
how China arrived at its SD-10 seeker design. According to a LOEC
official, the dual-mode capability was designed into the SD-10 from its
inception.
LOEC also confirmed that two versions of the missile have been
developed to date: the original SD-10 and the current SD-10A. The
SD-10A incorporates some small airframe design changes, but the
most important improvements were in its reliability and affordability.
According to LOEC, the SD-10A remains more costly than the company
would like. This may be a reflection of the high failure rate of some
sub-components - also acknowledged by LOEC - which the company
says it is working hard to remedy.
Discussing future extended-range AAM developments, a LOEC official
said that most of the work done so far remained theoretical. He noted
that debate continues in China regarding the benefits of ramjets
versus rocket propulsion systems. In this respect, China's designers
seem to be echoing the thoughts of their Russian counterparts, who
have also been less keen to completely embrace ramjets.
At the same time, Jane's was told that China lacks experience in small
ramjet engines of the kind needed for AAMs and that this was a brake
on progress as much as any philosophical reasons. Conceptual
drawings of an evolved SD-10, fitted with both a large rocket booster
section and a ramjet powerplant, have been seen in unofficial Chinese