![ROCAF F-CK-1A 1418 Display at Ching Chuang Kang Air Force Base Apron 20161126a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/ROCAF_F-CK-1A_1418_Display_at_Ching_Chuang_Kang_Air_Force_Base_Apron_20161126a.jpg)
The Sky Sword 1 (), or TC-1, is a short range
infrared guided air-to-air missile. The missile has fire and forget slave-by-radar capabilities. It consists of an
imaging infrared seeker, a high explosive warhead, a solid propellant motor and a guidance control unit.
The seeker uses dual spectral IR and has a detection range of 18.5km.
The Sky Sword 1 is also used as a
surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
by the
Antelope air defence system
The Antelope air defense system () is a Taiwanese short range ground-to-air anti-aircraft defense system in operation with the Republic of China Army.
Description
The Antelope system employs a battery of four Sky Sword I (TC-1) missiles mount ...
.
Development
The Sky Sword 1 was developed in the mid-1980s and revealed in May 1986, as Taiwan's first indigenous
air-to-air missile
The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back)
An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...
.
The production of the missile started in 1991 and the air-to-air version entered
ROCAF service in 1993. It bears a striking similarity to the American
AIM-9 (also in Taiwanese service) and fulfills a similar role on the
Indigenous Defense Fighter to the AIM-9 on the
F-16
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...
. In 2017 NCSIST exhibited a variant of the TC-1 with a larger diameter motor.
Service history
TC-1 missiles were employed during a 2019 training exercise off Taiwan’s east coast.
Variants
TC-1L
![Antelope Air Defense System in Songshan Air Force Base 20110813a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Antelope_Air_Defense_System_in_Songshan_Air_Force_Base_20110813a.jpg)
The TC-1L is a ground-launched variant for use with the
Antelope air defence system
The Antelope air defense system () is a Taiwanese short range ground-to-air anti-aircraft defense system in operation with the Republic of China Army.
Description
The Antelope system employs a battery of four Sky Sword I (TC-1) missiles mount ...
.
Sea TC-1
Developed for use with the
Sea Oryx
The Sea Oryx ( zh, t=海劍羚飛彈系統, p=Hǎi jiàn líng fēidàn xìtǒng) is a lightweight, infrared homing short-range air defense system developed for the Republic of China (Taiwan) Navy. Based on the TC-1L surface-to-air missile, i ...
system, the Sea TC-1 variant has an improved seeker, data-link, and rocket motor.
See also
*
Republic of China Air Force
*
Sky Bow
*
Sky Sword II
The Sky Sword II ( zh, t=天劍二, Tien Chien II), or TC-2, is a Taiwanese medium-range, hypersonic, radar guided air-to-air missile. It has an inertial navigation system, a data-link for mid-course guidance and active radar homing for ter ...
Similar weapons
*
AIM-9 Sidewinder
*
RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile
*
AAM-3
*
AAM-5
The Mitsubishi AAM-5 (Type 04 air-to-air missile, ) is a short-range air-to-air missile developed and produced by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Development of the missile as a replacement for the AAM-3 (Type ...
*
R.550 Magic
The R.550 Magic (backronym for ''Missile Auto-Guidé Interception et Combat'') is a short-range air-to-air missile designed in 1968 by French company Matra to compete with the American AIM-9 Sidewinder, and it was made backwards compatible with t ...
*
MICA
Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...
*
MAA-1 Piranha
*
A-Darter
The V3E A-Darter (Agile Darter) is a modern short-range infrared homing ("heat seeking") air-to-air missile, featuring countermeasures resistance with a 180-degree look angle and 120-degrees per second track rate, developed by South Africa's Den ...
*
Fatter
Fatter ( fa, فاطر, lit=Creator) is an Iranian short-range air-to-air missile based on the U.S.-built AIM-9 Sidewinder missile.
Development
Fatter is a short range missile which uses an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile body and Iranian avionics. In ...
*
R-73
*
PL-9
The PL-9 () is a short-range, infrared-homing air-to-air missile (AAM) developed by the People's Republic of China.
History
The PL-9 program was initiated in 1986. The missile entered batch production in 1989. Two improved variants, PL-9B and P ...
*
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (pro ...
References
External links
TC-2 info on Global Security* TC-2N test vide
{{National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) aircraft
Air-to-air missiles of the Republic of China
Surface-to-air missiles of the Republic of China
20th-century surface-to-air missiles
Military equipment introduced in the 1980s