China promoting FM-90 air defense system for the export market.

The CNPMIEC FM-90 short range air defense system is making a rare public appearance at AirShow China 2018. A reverse engineered copy of the French Crotale, the FM-90 air defense system is currently in service with the PLA and Pakistan Armed Forces.

FM-90/HQ-7B SHORAD system at AirShow China 2018
(Picture source Army Recognition)

The FM-90, also called HQ-7B for the Chinese market, is an advanced short-range air defense missile weapon system produced by CNPMIEC. The FM-90 is an all-weather short-range ground to air missile weapon system mainly used in important sites and battle fields air defense against air targets flying at low or very low altitude.

It uses advanced radar and optoelectronic sensors combined to detection and guidance technology, has an excellent low-altitude interception performance and strong anti-jamming capability.

The FM-90/HQ-7B is an improved variant of the HQ-7/FM-80 system with faster and longer-range missiles. Missiles which are also featuring an IR-tracking camera. It has an effective range of 0.7 to 15 km depending on target. 

It can not only effectively destroy precision guided weapons such as cruise missile, tactical air-to-ground missile and anti-radiation missile, but also intercept fighter-bomber, attack aircraft, UAV and armed helicopters.