Pakistan Army inducts Chinese-made HQ-9/P air defence system.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa on October 14 witnessed the commissioning of state-of-the-art Chinese-made HQ-9/P HIMADS (High to Medium Air Defence System) into Pakistan Army Air Defence, The Express Tribunes reports.
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Commissioning of the Chinese-made HQ-9/P air defense system on October 14, 2021 (Picture source: ISPR)

According to Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Commander Army Air Defence Command Lieutenant General Hamooduz Zaman Khan briefed Gen Qamar about strategic weapon system during a visit to Army Air Defence Centre Karachi. "Induction of HIMADS will significantly enhance Comprehensive Layered Integrated Air Defence (CLIAD) shield of aerial frontiers of Pakistan as the system is fully integrated through a well-knit Digitised System on its inventory," the official communiqué read.

The military's media wing said that HQ-9/P (P for Pakistan) is considered as a strategic long-range Surface to Air Missile (SAM) with remarkable flexibility and precision capable of intercepting multiple air targets including aircraft, cruise missiles and Beyond Visual Range Weapons at ranges over 100 km with Single Shot Kill Probability.

The HQ-9 (Hóng Qí-9, 'Red Banner-9') is a Chinese medium- to long-range, active radar homing surface-to-air missile. Similar in capability to the Russian S-300 and American Patriot systems, the HQ-9 uses an HT-233 PESA radar system. The naval variant, HHQ-9 (Hǎi Hóng Qí-9, 'Sea Red Banner-9'), appears to be identical to the land-based variant. HHQ-9 is equipped in the PLAN Type 052C Lanzhou class destroyer in VLS launch tubes. The HQ-9 system has an anti-radiation variant, known as the FT-2000 for export. The export designation for the air defense version is FD-2000 (with FD stands for Fang Dun, meaning defensive shield), and its developer China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corporation (CPMIEC) first made it public at the Africa Aerospace and Defence Exhibition held at Cape Town in March 2009.