BY
As a new generation of Chinese naval missile, the face of
the YJ-18 has long been veiled and features kept secret. And yet, this is
actually not just a model but a family of naval missiles with many variants,
whose details are slowly beginning to emerge.
So what do we know concretely about the YJ-18 family, if
we rely solely on reliable and institutional elements?
The story begins in the year 2000 when the Chinese navy,
to address the new threats and support its strategy of high seas, has launched
a program of pre-studies of "major context" with the arms
manufacturers of the country.
Details are still not known during this pre-study phase,
but as with most Chinese naval missiles, the new project has finally returned
to the hands of the 3rd Academy of the Chinese aerospace group CASIC.
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The name of YJ-12 and YJ-18 begins to appear
in 2009 in some research papers.
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And it is from 2009 that the name YJ-18, as well as that
of YJ-12 representing a supersonic
airborne missile, begin to appear in some research documents made public.
For example, those who speak of the development of a
titanium joint of the wing, or the metallurgical method to manufacture the
ultrafine aluminum alloy cell of the missile.
While many thought at that time that the Chinese navy is
developing a new generation of anti-ship missile to renew the YJ-8 and its
variants on surface ships , the
"first" YJ-18 is actually a missile dedicated to attack submarines to
replace the old YJ-82 and provide an
alternative solution to the Russian-made 3M-54E Club (Kalibr), imported at the
same time as the Project 636M Varshavyanka class submarines in 2004 .
It is therefore not surprising that we can find some
similarities with the Russian missile on the YJ-18, such as two-speed flight -
subsonic cruising and final supersonic attack - and the choice of resulting
architecture that combines a disposable first-stage carrier and a
rocket-propelled missile.
But can we already consider the YJ-18 as a replica of
3M-54E?
To date, there is no evidence of such a reverse engineering
process of the Russian missile by CASIC engineers. On the one hand, according
to an article published two days ago on the institutional journal China Space
News, the Chinese missile is "shorter, lighter and double the range"
compared to its Russian counterpart (which measures 8 , 22 meters long, 2,300
kg by weight and 220 km range), and secondly, the date of the YJ-18 project
launch is earlier than that of the reception of the Russian missile.
However, it cannot be totally ruled out that the arrival
of the latter could have contributed to Chinese development.
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The basic version YJ-18
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The basic version YJ-18
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Anyway, we know at least the following things: the solid
propellant booster of the YJ-18, to push the missile and its military load
beyond the wall of its terminal duvol, was tested in winter 2009 It is also
known that more than 300 patents related to the project have been filed so far,
and that the Type 039A / Type 039B
diesel submarines started to develop this missile in 2013, so even for Chinese
nuclear attack submarines.
A source close to the Chinese navy also speaks of a speed
of attack "lower than Mach 2.7", so that of the YJ-12 , but this
remains to be confirmed.
As for other performances of this submarine version of
the YJ-18, the text of the newspaper cited above simply mentions a 360 °
missile coverage area that is "600 times larger" than that of the old
missile. Soum-Mer of the Chinese Navy, namely the YJ-82.
However, a missile launched from a submarine that has a
360 ° coverage can only be a vertical launch missile. The missile referred to
in the article is, in fact, a variant known as
YJ-18B .
Knowing now the range of YJ-82 which is 40 km, it is then
possible to establish the following equation to find, approximately, the range
of the YJ-18B, if one voluntarily ignores the minimum range of the two
missiles:
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The "coverage area" of YJ-18B is
"600 times larger" than that of YJ-82 (Image: East Pendulum)
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Knowing that in this equation the angle of the circular
sector of the attack zone of YJ-82 is unknown, we have created a simulation
based on the variation of this one to draw the YJ-18B possible range curve:
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The estimated range of the vertical submarine
YJ-18B missile (Image: East Pendulum)
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The result of the simulation therefore suggests a range
of between 400 and 500 km for the YJ-18B, corresponding to a scanning range of
between 60 ° (± 30 °) and 90 ° (± 45 °) of the YJ-82. These data seem to be
consistent with the speculated figures, namely a range of 500 km for the YJ-18
without specifying however the version.
Note that, according to the article by China Space News,
the YJ-18B has broken several records of the Chinese navy, see
"global" for an anti-ship missile. The text mentions the greater
depth of the launch, a "record" altitude flying on sea, as well as
the highest rate of destruction by a single missile in the history of the
Chinese navy.
It is also the first Chinese naval missile to light its
engine underwater and able to control its trajectory before crossing the
surface of the sea.
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Chief Engineer YJ-18 Program (Photo: CASIC)
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Apart from the two submarine versions, namely the YJ-18
basic launch horizontally from a torpedo tube and the YJ-18B from a vertical
launch tube, a third variant intended for surface warships, the YJ-18A , also
joined the ranks of the Chinese Navy.
The existence of this version was first revealed in a TV
report from August 2015, in which we can see the missile, launched from one of
the Chinese weapons test ships, hit a landing barge serving as a target.
The first Chinese warships to have equipped this version
of YJ-18 are the Type 052D destroyers ,
whose first copy was admitted to active duty in March 2014. The photo showing
the launch of a YJ-18A from an elevator CCL ( Concentric Canister Launcher ) of
the universal VLS of ship has been published recently in the official journal
of the Chinese army.
The evidence indicates that of the 64 Type 052D silos,
eight of them having a length of 9 meters (?) And standing in front of the
superstructure are capable of harboring these anti-ship missiles.
Note that this YJ-18 version Sea-Sea team also the new
destroyer Type 055 , but its number in
the 112 silos of the ship remains to be determined.
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Launching a YJ-12A from a Type 052D destroyer
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In addition to these three anti-ship versions, the YJ-18
family will soon expand to see the arrival of a newborn - a naval cruise
missile - to hit the ground targets.
If the Chinese navy is confined so far to remain "in
its dimension", it will come the day it can project its firepower far
behind the coast, thanks to the endowment of this new vector, without
necessarily deploying its naval air forces embedded that are still under
construction.
It will then become an interventionist army like the
other naval powers of the world.
Finally, it is possible that a version of coastal
defense, carried on a mobile vehicle and which will replace the YJ-62 of today,
is also in development, but this remains to be confirmed.
Henri K.
Type 052D destroyer: Details
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