Iran turns to Chicoms for air defense

Jerusalem Post:

Iran will turn to China instead of Russia to acquire an advanced air defense system after relations between Iran and Russia hit rock bottom, the official Iranian news agency PressTV reported.

For years Iran has been trying to purchase the S-300 anti-aircraft missile, which is considered to one of the most advanced systems available on the market and would dramatically increase Iran's air defense capabilities against any attacks on its nuclear installations.

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Teheran will now turn to China for the HongQi-9/FD-2000 system which reportedly combines elements "borrowed" from the Russian S-300 and the American MIM-104 Patriot system, according to the Iranian news agency.

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The Chinese system if a dual knock off of existing systems. Defense Industry Daily reports:

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SinoDefense reports that the HQ-9 uses a ‘Track-Via-Missile’ (TVM) terminal guidance system that is similar to the Patriot’s, but the state of China’s solid rocket technology has forced the use of a much larger missiles. The final missile reportedly uses elements of the S-300’s solid rocket, aerodynamic layout, gas-dynamic spoilers, and launcher technologies, as well as some search and guidance systems. There have also been accusations that Israel transferred some elements of Patriot technology to China in the early 1990s. Israel has denied this, however, and some of the benefits one might expect do not appear to have materialized. Among other things, the HQ-9’s deployment patterns suggest second-tier status within China itself, compared to alternatives like advanced Russian S-300 family surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems.

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There would be some irony if Israel were responsible for the technology transfer that might be used against it. I suspect they will be able to defeat the Chinese system if they decide to attack after it is installed.