The TL-6 (Tian Long - 6) or Sky Dragon - 6 is a light

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A goo ...

History

The development of the TL program appeared to have started in the mid-1990s and were originally identified as the FL-8 (TL-10) and FL-9 (TL-6) under China National Aero Technology Import & Export Company (CATIC). The program and missiles were officially revealed in the Zhuhai Airshow in 2004 by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).

Development

TL-6 along with the smaller

TL-10 The TL-10 (Tian Long - 10) or Sky Dragon (天龙) - 10 is a light anti-ship missile unveiled in the Zhuhai Airshow in 2004 in China, and it is the Chinese equivalent of the French MM-15TT / AS-15TT light anti-ship missile developed by Aérospatial ...

are both developed and manufactured by

Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation Hongdu Aviation Industry Group Ltd. (HAIG) (), formerly China Nanchang Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation or CNAMC, is a Chinese aircraft manufacturer and supplier to the Chinese military. It is based in Nanchang, Jiangxi and is a subsidiary of ...

. The origin of TL-6 is similar to that of

: there are thousands small FAC and

patrol boat A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and the ...

s armed with

s that pose great threats, but it is highly inefficient to use

s such as

Harpoon missile The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile manufactured by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing Defense, Space & Security). The AGM-84E Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM) and later AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER (Standoff Land Attack ...

and

Exocet The Exocet () is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Etymology The missile's name was given by M. Guillot, then the technical director ...

that are designed against large warships for the destruction of these small boats, thus it is necessary to develop a light

to engage these small yet potentially highly lethal boats.

Design

While

series is specifically designed to engage boats displacing 500 tons or less, TL-6 series is specifically designed to engage larger naval vessel with displacement up to 1,000 tons. Along with C-704 that covers ships from 1,000 tons to 3,000 tons, and larger

anti ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A good ...

s such as C-802 that covers large ships, China has developed a complete anti ship cruise missile families that covers every displacement class.

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

sources have claimed that the Iranian Nasr anti-ship missile is based on TL-6. Like the anti-ship version of the

C-701 The YJ-7 () is a Chinese subsonic anti-ship missile. It is manufactured by the Third Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).Gormley et al.: page 18 The export version of the YJ-7 is the C-701.Gormley et al.: page ...

and

, TL-6 can also be armed with a television seeker which is interchangeable with

. At the sixth

Zhuhai Zhuhai (, ; Yale: ''Jyūhói''), also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of Pear ...

airshow An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground. The largest air show ...

in 2006, the manufacturer revealed the plan already in development to have various platforms including aircraft, surface ships/boats, and from land/vehicle. However, like most light

s in the world, it is certain that this

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocke ...

would not be launched from submarines, as the manufacturer has confirmed. Like its smaller cousin TL-6, the version that has been successfully completed is the ship-to-ship version, and hence the designation JJ/TL-6 at the sixth

in 2006, with JJ stands for Jian Jian, meaning ''Ship (to) Ship''.

FL-9

FL-9 (FL = Fei Long / Feilong, or 飞龙 in Chinese, meaning Flying Dragon) is the cheaper coastal defense version of TL-6. Following the tradition of

Silkworm missile The SY (), and HY () series were early anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) developed by the People's Republic of China from the Soviet P-15 Termit missile. They entered service in the late 1960s and remained the main ASCMs deployed by the People's ...

, a land-based version with the lowest requirement is also developed for this missile: as the missile is stored in a controlled environment in a warehouse on land, the salinity, temperature and relative humidity requirements for the missile itself are greatly reduced. Because it is designed and deployed on land, the associate C4I systems can be located separately: the distributed system prevents electromagnetic interference, and if the C4I system is attacked, the distributed nature of the FL-9 would greatly reduce casualties and damage.

Nasr-1

Nasr-1 is reported to be the Iranian version of TL-6. However, there are some disagreements over this due to the lack of official confirmation from neither the Iran nor China. While many sources claim that Nasr is based on TL-6, there are others that claim Nasr is based on another Chinese

, C-704 instead.

TL-2

A new version of TL-6 appeared made its public debut at the 7th

Zhuhai Airshow China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (), also known as the Airshow China () or Zhuhai Airshow (), is the largest airshow and aerospace trade expo in China. It has been held in even years in Zhuhai, Guangdong since 1996. His ...

held at the end of 2008, together with its smaller cousin TL-1. Developed by

, the same manufacturer of TL-6, the new missile is designated as TL-2, and appears almost identical to TL-6. Not much information of TL-2 was released in detail at the air show, and based on scattered technical information published in China, it has been suggested that TL-2 is an upgraded TL-6 with a data link added, so that in addition to the original fire-and-forget capability, the only capability present on TL-10, there is an extra capability present on TL-2: operators can select to attack a different target other than the original one, if a greater threat has been identified after launching TL-2. These are other speculations on TL-2, such as TL-6 was purely for export, while TL-2 is the designation for domestic Chinese use, but these have yet to be verified when more detailed technical information is released in the future. Although the manufacturer has claimed that TL-1 can be deployed from various platform, the sample shown at the 7th Zhuhai Airshow was ship-born only, designated as JJ/TL-2, with JJ stands for Jian Jian (舰舰), meaning ''Ship (to) Ship''.

Specification

*Dimensions: **Length: 3400 mm - 3500 mm **Diameter: 280 mm **Wingspan: 900 mm * Weight: 350 kg - 360 kg *Warhead: 30 kg, semi-armor piecing *Powerplant: twin thrust chamber,

solid rocket motor A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Persia ...

*Speed: Mach 0.8 - 0.9 *Range: 4–35 km *Guidance: Radar-guided/ INS *Kill probability: 0.85 *Developer:

Operators

Current operators

Islamic Republic of Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

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 ...

References

Report on the 5th Airshow China Zhuhai, Richard Fisher, Jr., PRC, November 1–7, 2004 * China aids Iran's tactical missile programme, Robert Hewson,

Janes Defence Weekly ''Jane's Defence Weekly'' (abbreviated as ''JDW'') is a weekly magazine reporting on military and corporation, corporate affairs, edited by Peter Felstead. It is one of a number of military-related publications named after Fred T. Jane, John F. ...

, November 11, 2004
TL-2/6
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tl-6 Anti-ship cruise missiles of the People's Republic of China Air-to-surface missiles Military equipment introduced in the 2000s