In the 1950s, the aviation of the United States and Kuomintang Taiwan violated the air border of the PRC many times. Chinese fighters MiG-15 and MiG-17 repeatedly rose to intercept intruders. A real air war was going on over the Taiwan Strait. In 1958 alone, PLA aircraft shot down 17 and damaged 25 enemy aircraft, while their own losses amounted to 15 MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters.
Suffering sensitive losses, the Kuomintang moved on to reconnaissance flights at heights, where the fighters then available in the PRC could not get them. For this, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft received from the USA were used: RB-57D and U-2.
The Americans who armed Taiwan were not altruists: the main purpose of the reconnaissance flights to be carried out by the Taiwanese pilots was to obtain the information the United States needed about the work on the creation of nuclear weapons in the PRC.
High-altitude reconnaissance RB-57D
In the first three months of 1959, RB-57Ds flew ten hours-long flights over the PRC, and in June of the same year, reconnaissance aircraft flew over Beijing twice. The celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the PRC was approaching, and the forecasts of a possible disruption of the anniversary celebrations looked quite real. The then Chinese leadership took these flights very painfully.
In this situation, Mao Zedong made a personal request to Khrushchev to supply the PRC with the latest SA-75 "Dvina" air defense systems, created in KB-1 (NPO Almaz) under the leadership of A. A. Raspletin. Despite the beginning of a cooling in relations between the PRC and the USSR, Mao Zedong's personal request was granted, and in the spring of 1959, in an atmosphere of deep secrecy, five SA-75 fire and one technical divisions were delivered to the PRC, including 62 11D anti-aircraft missiles created by the ICB "Torch" under the direction of PD Grushin.
At the same time, a group of Soviet specialists was sent to China to service these missile systems, who, in addition to preparing Chinese calculations, began organizing air defense of large cities: Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shenyang.
Under the leadership of Soviet military adviser Colonel Viktor Slyusar, on October 7, 1959, near Beijing, at an altitude of 20,600 m, the Taiwanese RB-57D, a twin-engine long-range reconnaissance aircraft, was for the first time shot down, which is a copy of the reconnaissance version of the British Canberra. The tape recording of the pilot's negotiations with Taiwan was cut off in mid-sentence and, judging by it, he did not see any danger. As shown by the study of the fallen debris, the high-altitude reconnaissance RB-57D fell apart in the air and its fragments scattered several kilometers, and the pilot of the reconnaissance aircraft Wang Yingqin was mortally wounded.
In order to hide the presence in China of the latest anti-aircraft missile technology at that time, the Chinese and Soviet leaders agreed not to give an open message about the downed plane in the press. When Taiwanese media reported that the RB-57D had crashed, crashed and sank in the East China Sea during a training flight, Xinhua News Agency responded with the following message: “BEIJING, October 9. October 7 in the morning alone An American-made Chiang Kai-shek reconnaissance aircraft, with provocative purposes, entered the airspace over the regions of North China and was shot down by the air force of the People's Liberation Army of China. How and with what weapon - for reasons of secrecy - not a word.
The Americans, analyzing the loss of their high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft over China, did not attribute this to Soviet anti-aircraft missiles. Reconnaissance flights of high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft continued, resulting in further painful losses.
High-altitude reconnaissance aircraft U-2
In total, 5 more U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft under the control of Taiwanese pilots were shot down over the PRC, some of them survived and were captured. Only after a Soviet anti-aircraft missile hit a previously unattainable U-2 in the Sverdlovsk region, and this received a great international resonance, did the Americans understand that high altitude was no longer a guarantee of invulnerability.
The high combat qualities of Soviet missile weapons at that time prompted the Chinese leadership to acquire a license for the production of the SA-75 air defense system, (the Chinese name is HQ-1 (HongQi-1, "Hongqi-1", "Red Banner-1")). all the necessary agreements were soon reached. However, the Soviet-Chinese differences that began to intensify in the late 1950s became the reason that in 1960 the USSR announced the withdrawal of all military advisers from the PRC, which was the beginning of the practical curtailment of military-technical cooperation between the USSR and the PRC for a long time.
Under these conditions, further improvement in the PRC of anti-aircraft missile weapons began to be carried out on the basis of the policy of "self-reliance" proclaimed in the country in the early 1960s. However, this policy, which became one of the main tenets of the Cultural Revolution, in relation to the creation of modern types of missile weapons turned out to be ineffective, even after the PRC began to actively entice specialists of Chinese origin who had the relevant specialties from abroad, primarily from the United States. … In those years, more than a hundred prominent scientists of Chinese nationality returned to the PRC. In parallel with this, work was intensified to acquire advanced technologies in the military-technical field, and specialists from Germany, Switzerland and a number of other countries began to be invited to work in the PRC.
Simultaneously with the start of mastering the production of the HQ-1 air defense system in 1965, the development of its more advanced version under the designation HQ-2 was started. The new air defense system was distinguished by an increased range of action, as well as higher performance when working in conditions of using electronic countermeasures. The first version of the HQ-2 entered service in July 1967.
In the creation of the "Chinese air defense system" HQ-2, the war that was raging in Southeast Asia at that time greatly contributed. Despite acute political differences, a significant part of Soviet military aid to Vietnam went by rail through the territory of the PRC. Soviet specialists have repeatedly recorded cases of loss of samples of aviation and rocket equipment during their transportation through the territory of the PRC. Thus, the Chinese, not disdaining banal theft, got the opportunity to get acquainted with modern Soviet developments.
In the PRC, on the basis of the Soviet SA-75, three programs were carried out to create and produce air defense systems intended to combat high-altitude targets. Among them, along with the already mentioned HQ-1 and HQ-2, also included HQ-3, with a missile that was supposed to have a significantly increased range and flight speed, specially created to counter reconnaissance flights in the American supersonic high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft SR- 71.
However, only the HQ-2, which in the 1970s and 1980s, received further development. it was repeatedly modernized in order to maintain its characteristics at a level corresponding to the development of air attack weapons.
The HQ-2 air defense missile system division included six launchers, 18 spare missiles, a Chinese copy of the P-12 detection radar, the SJ-202 guidance radar (a copy of the SNR-75), TZM, and other equipment.
The work on the first modernization of the HQ-2 was started in 1973, based on the analysis of military operations in Vietnam. Created taking into account the combat experience of the HQ-2A air defense system, it had a number of high-quality innovations and was put into service in the 1978 year. In general, the Chinese analogue of the Soviet S-75 air defense system repeated the path taken in the USSR with a delay of 10-15 years.
Further development of the HQ-2 air defense system was its mobile version - HQ-2B, work on which was started in 1979. As part of the HQ-2V complex, it was planned to use a launcher on a tracked chassis, as well as a modified rocket equipped with a new radio fuse, the operation of which depended on the position of the rocket relative to the target. A new warhead was also created (or rather, copied from Soviet missiles), increasing the likelihood of defeat. A new sustainer engine with increased thrust was developed. This version of the air defense system was adopted in the 1986 year.
However, the HQ-2V complex did not become truly mobile, the rocket, fueled with fuel and oxidizer, could not be transported over a significant distance on a tracked chassis. It could only be about increasing the mobility of launchers and their independence from towing facilities.
Simultaneously with the HQ-2B, the HQ-2J air defense system was adopted, which was distinguished by the use of a stationary launcher for launching the rocket. Also, in the 1970s-1980s, the development of anti-missile versions of the HQ-2 air defense system was carried out, which did not receive further development.
Satellite image of Google Earth: the position of the Chinese air defense system HQ-2
In total, over 600 launchers and 5000 missiles were produced in the PRC over the years of production of the HQ-2 air defense system. About 100 anti-aircraft missile battalions HQ-2 of various modifications for a long time formed the basis of the PRC's air defense. About 30 divisions were exported to Albania, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea.
The HQ-2 air defense system took part in hostilities during the Sino-Vietnamese conflicts in 1979 and 1984, and was also actively used by Iran during the Iran-Iraq war.
In the mid-80s in China, on the basis of the HQ-2 air defense missile system, an operational-tactical missile M-7 (CSS-8) was created, with a range of up to 150 km. For this missile, a monoblock warhead with conventional explosives weighing up to 250 kg, cluster and chemical warheads were developed. These missiles (about 90 units) were exported to Iran in 1992.
In turn, Iran has engaged in active modernization of the HQ-2J air defense system received from the PRC and has established the production of missiles for them.
Iranian-made missile "Sayyad-1"
In the late 1990s, Iran introduced new missiles called Sayyad-1 and Sayyad-1A, the latter of which, according to official figures, has an infrared homing system.
Currently, the PRC is actively replacing outdated HQ-2 complexes with modern ones: HQ-9, HQ-12, HQ-16, S-300PMU, S-300PMU-1 and 2. The PLA anti-aircraft missile forces of the PRC are armed with 110- 120 anti-aircraft missile systems (divisions) and a total of about 700 launchers. Of these, today a little more than 10% are HQ-2 air defense systems deployed in secondary directions. Taking into account the agreements recently concluded with our country on the supply of S-400 air defense systems to China, it is safe to say that in the next few years the HQ-2 air defense systems will be removed from service in the PRC.
At the same time, the HQ-2 outlived its progenitor, the C-75, by more than 20 years. In Russia, the last complexes of this type stopped being on alert at the beginning of the 90s.
