The air defense capability of Pakistan Railway has reached a new level! Thanks to the great help of the Chinese brothers, Pakistan's air defense system can now be said to be very powerful.
Let's start at the beginning. In earlier years, the Pakistani air defense forces, like the Air Force, had a soft spot for Western anti-aircraft missile systems. At the end of the 70s of the last century, they signed an agreement with France to buy a batch of "Krotal" short-range mobile air defense systems. This thing was actually the predecessor of our Chinese Hongqi-7, which was quite advanced at the time.
In addition to "Krothal", Pakistan also wants to engage in medium-range anti-aircraft missiles. As a result, the first medium-range missiles to be deployed were China's Hongqi-2B, with a range of 36 kilometers, deployed near the capital Islamabad and the big city of Karachi, as well as around the Kushab nuclear facility. Before being replaced by the Hongqi-16 and Hongqi-9, it was the only medium-range air defense system that could intercept high-altitude targets of more than 20 kilometers.
However, the Hongqi-2B is a bit backward after all, and Pakistan wants to buy some new gadgets, but China can't make more advanced ones at this time. In August 2007, Pakistan went to the West to buy goods, and in August 2007, it bought 10 battalions of the "Spada" 2000 Plus medium-range air defense missile system from the European Missile Group.
The "Spada" 2000 Plus is known as a medium-range anti-aircraft missile, but its range is only 20 kilometers, and it has no ability to intercept ballistic missiles, so it is not a real regional air defense capability. But at that time, Pakistan and Railway did not have any better choice, firstly, because China could not make more advanced medium-range anti-aircraft missiles for the time being, and secondly, because Russia refused to sell them. In the end, Ba Tie pinched his nose and picked out the "Spada" 2000 Plus, which looked like a good deal.
However, Western goods are too expensive, and Pakistan really can't afford to use them. Fortunately, at this time, made in China began to rise, and the Chinese-made air defense missile system in the Pakistani Railway Air Defense Force gradually became the main force. Russian expert Lynnik Sergei also mentioned an interesting thing, in the 90s, Pakistan Railway upgraded the "Krotal", in addition to the French, Chinese experts also participated. Because at that time, China had completely mastered the technology of "Krotal" and copied the domestic "Hongqi-7".
The "Hongqi-7" is not a vegetarian, all-weather, low-altitude, ultra-low-altitude air defense missile weapon system, with a range of 12 kilometers and an altitude of 5.5 kilometers, and the warhead is an explosive fragmentation type, which can deal with aircraft, helicopters, air-to-ground missiles and cruise missiles, and the single-shot hit rate is as high as 80%~90%. Later, the "Hongqi-7" was also upgraded to Type A and Type B, and its performance became stronger and stronger.
Pakistan was very interested in the "Hongqi-7B" and bought a batch under the name "FM-90", which was also publicly displayed at the military parade in March 2015. According to Indian estimates, Pakistan has at least 120 FM-90 launchers, which basically replace the French "Krotal" air defense system.
On the side of the medium-range air defense missile system, Pakistan found that the level of the "Spada" 2000 Plus was too low to provide much-needed regional air defense and anti-missile capabilities. It just so happened that good news came from China at this time, and in 2011 the PLA was equipped with the newly developed "Hongqi-16A" medium-range anti-aircraft missile system. The Hongqi-16A has a maximum range of 40 kilometers and a flight speed of up to Mach 3.5 (sic, but it should be Mach 4), and is mounted on a heavy transport chassis, making it particularly maneuverable.
Pakistan soon talked to China about buying a Hongqi-16A. In 2017, the first batch of "LY-80" (the export model of Hongqi-16A) arrived in Pakistan, and the following year it was publicly unveiled. In 2019, Pakistan test-fired the LY-80 near Karachi, successfully hitting a number of targets, and then declared the LY-80 air defense system combat-ready and put on combat duty. According to the Pakistani military, a set of LY-80 can cover about 8,000 square kilometers of territory. In 2021, Pakistan Railway bought the export version of the improved "Hongqi-16B" with a longer range "LY-80EV".
In the end, what makes China stand out in Pakistan's railway air defense system is the Hongqi-9 long-range air defense missile. According to the analysis of Russian experts, the United States, Russia, France, and other countries are unwilling to sell long-range air defense missiles to Pakistan because of their relations with India. However, in the face of India's increasing number of long-range precision strike means, Pakistan and the Railways will be too passive in their strategy against India if they do not engage in long-range air defense.
So, "Pakistan has no choice but to buy long-range air defense systems from China." Although China itself had just bought the S400 from Russia at that time, Pakistan Railway was a little skeptical about the performance of the Hongqi-9. But considering that the Hongqi-9 won the Turkish tender before, and China itself is equipped with a large number of them, there should be no problem with the performance. In October 2021, the Hongqi-9P air defense system officially entered service in Pakistan. In January 2024, Pakistan Railway also used the Hongqi-9P target for the first time and successfully destroyed the target.
By the way, Russian experts also deliberately clarified that some people say that the Hongqi-9 is an imitation of the Russian S-300PMU, which is not true. Although they look quite similar, they are all fired vertically cold, and the composition is similar. However, when developing the Hongqi-9, China did not refer to US intelligence, for example, the HT-233 multifunctional radar is very similar to the AN/MPQ-53 radar of the American "Patriot" missile system.
In short, China is quite concerned about strengthening the air defense and air defense combat capabilities of Pakistan and Railway. Russian experts lamented that the relationship between Beijing and Islamabad is so iron, maybe it has given Pakistan a large discount. In any case, Indian writers predict that in the future, the new Chinese-made air defense system will definitely show its skills in Pakistan.