The SY (), and HY () series were early
anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) developed by the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
from the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
P-15 Termit
The P-15 ''Termit'' (russian: П-15 "Термит"; en, termite) is an anti-ship missile developed by the Soviet Union's MKB Raduga, Raduga design bureau in the 1950s. Its GRAU designation was 4K40, its NATO reporting name was ''Styx'' or SS-N ...
missile. They entered service in the late 1960s and remained the main ASCMs deployed by the
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN; ), also known as the People's Navy, Chinese Navy, or PLA Navy, is the maritime service branch of the People's Liberation Army.
The PLAN traces its lineage to naval units fighting during the Chinese ...
through the 1980s. The missiles were used by the PRC and export customers to develop
land-attack missile
A land-attack missile (LAM) is a naval surface-to-surface missile that is capable of effectively attacking targets ashore, unlike specialized anti-ship missiles, which are optimized for striking other ships. Some dual-role missiles are suitable f ...
s.
The name Silkworm is popularly used for the entire SY and HY family. As a
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
it applies only to the land-based variant of the HY-1.
Development
![HY-3 Missile 20170919](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/HY-3_Missile_20170919.jpg)
Chinese preparations were underway before receiving the first P-15s and related technical data from the Soviets in 1959. On 8 October 1956, the
Fifth Academy was founded - with
Qian Xuesen
Qian Xuesen, or Hsue-Shen Tsien (; 11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009), was a Chinese mathematician, cyberneticist, aerospace engineer, and physicist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineeri ...
as director - to pursue missile development, and in March 1958 a cruise missile test site was selected at
Liaoxi
Liaoxi () was a former province in Northeast China, located in what is now part of Liaoning and Jilin provinces. It existed from 1949 to 1954, and its capital was Jinzhou
Jinzhou (, ), formerly Chinchow, is a coastal prefecture-level city ...
in
Liaoning
Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...
. The first successful missile test was conducted in November 1960 after the withdrawal of Soviet advisors in September due to the
Sino-Soviet split
The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...
. The P-15 was copied to became the SY-1. Production started at the
Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Company in October 1963 and the first successful test occurred in 1965; production was approved August 1967 and the SY-1 entered service by the end of the decade.
The SY-1 was developed into the improved HY-1; the HY-1 was successfully tested in December 1968 and entered service in 1974.
Operational history
Iran–Iraq War
The Silkworm gained fame in the 1980s when it was used by both sides in the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
; both countries were supplied by China. During 1987, Iran launched a number of Silkworm missiles from the
Faw Peninsula, striking the American-owned,
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
n-flagged tanker ''Sungari'' and U.S.-flagged tanker
''Sea Isle City'' in October 1987. Five other missiles struck areas in Kuwait earlier in the year. In October 1987, Kuwait's Sea Island offshore
oil terminal
An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obt ...
was hit by an Iranian Silkworm which was observed to have originated from the Faw peninsula. The attack prompted Kuwait to deploy a
Hawk missile
The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK ("Homing all the way killer") is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to the MIM-14 Nike Hercules, trading off range and altitude capability for a much sm ...
battery on
Failaka Island
Failaka Island ( ar, فيلكا '' / ''; Kuwaiti Arabic: فيلچا ) is a Kuwaiti Island in the Persian Gulf. The island is 20 km off the coast of Kuwait City in the Persian Gulf. The name "Failaka" is thought to be derived from the ancien ...
to protect the terminal. In December 1987, another Iranian Silkworm was fired at the terminal, but it struck a decoy barge instead. Prior to these attacks the missile's range was thought to be less than , but these attacks proved that the range exceeded with
Kuwaiti military observers seeing that the missiles originated from the area and tracking them on radar along with US satellite imagery of the launch sites.
[Counter-memorial and Counter-claim submitted by the United States of America]
. June 23, 1997.
Persian Gulf War
On February 25, 1991 during
Operation Desert Storm
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...
, a shore-based Iraqi launcher fired two Silkworm missiles at the
USS ''Missouri'' which was in company with the
USS ''Jarrett'' and
HMS ''Gloucester''. A
Sea Dart missile
Sea Dart, or GWS.30 was a Royal Navy surface-to-air missile system designed in the 1960s and entering service in 1973. It was fitted to the Type 42 destroyers (United Kingdom and Argentina), Type 82 destroyer and s of the Royal Navy. Originally ...
from HMS ''Gloucester'' shot down one Silkworm and the other missed, crashing into the ocean.
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
officers subsequently recovered an HY-2 missile at
Umm Qasr
Umm Qasr ( ar, أم قصر, also transliterated as ''Um-qasir'', ''Um-qasser, Um Qasr'') is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the Persian Gulf. It is sep ...
in southern Iraq. It is currently displayed at the
RAF Museum Cosford
The Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, located in Cosford in Shropshire, is a free (currently, 2022) museum dedicated to the history of aviation and the Royal Air Force in particular. The museum is part of the Royal Air Force Museum, a non-departme ...
.
Iraq War
During the
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
used the Silkworm (HY-2 Seersucker) as a
surface to surface missile
A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) or ground-to-ground missile (GGM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed ins ...
by firing at least two of them at the coalition positions in
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
.
Variants
;SY-1
License produced version of the P-15 Termit. NATO reporting name CSS-N-1 Scrubbrush.
;SY-2
;HY-1
NATO reporting names CSS-N-2 Safflower(ship-based) and CSSC-2 Silkworm (land-based.)
;HY-2
NATO reporting names CSS-N-3 Seersucker(ship-based) and CSSC-3 Seersucker (land-based.)
;HY-3
Unsuccessful supersonic variant.
;HY-4
Powered by a WP-11
turbojet
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...
, a reverse-engineered
Teledyne-Ryan J69-T-41A. Used for LACM development. NATO reporting name Sadsack.
;YJ-63
Air-launched LACM sharing visual characteristics of the HY-2, HY-4, and YJ-6. 200 km range.
;AG-1
Longer-ranged variant of the HY-2 developed by
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
.
Operators
Current operators
* (made under license)
* (
Type 053H)
*
*
* (as of
Saddam
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
's Era)
*
*
*
*
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Federation of American Scientists page on HY-1
{{Chinese Missiles
Anti-ship cruise missiles of the People's Republic of China
China–Soviet Union relations
Guided missiles of the People's Republic of China