Image source: topwar.ru
Today, Russians are not surprised by the presence of Chinese Hongqi or Hongqi brand cars on Russian roads.
This car brand translates from Chinese as "Red Banner", and is one of the first national car brands in China: for example, Chinese President XI Jinping is driving a Hongqi government limousine today.
However, few people know that under the "Red Banner" brand, engineers from China produce weapons systems, some of which were "borrowed" from their Russian neighbor.
In the mid-1990s, the Chinese authorities decided to purchase Russian Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems manufactured by the Izhevsk Electromechanical Plant Kupol (today part of the Almaz-Antey defense holding company).
At that time, the ground forces of the Chinese Army (PLA) needed short-range anti-aircraft missile systems. Taking into account the military challenges of the late 20th century, air defense systems were required to cover tank columns, as well as important military and government facilities from possible air strikes.
According to open data, in 1996, Chinese partners ordered 14 Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia. The first combat vehicles were delivered to China in 1997.
During the exercises of the Chinese air defense units, Russian air defense systems showed their tactical and technical characteristics at their best. It is not surprising that already in 1999, the Chinese army ordered another batch of anti-aircraft missile systems.
In total, between 1997 and 2001, Russia supplied 35 Tor-M1 complexes to China, as well as anti-aircraft guided missiles to them.
As you know, during the years of China's economic development, the Chinese tried to copy a large number of foreign technologies first, and then, if possible, improve their characteristics.
A similar story was repeated with the Tor-M1 air defense system. In the early noughties, Chinese gunsmiths began to create a new short-range anti-aircraft missile system based on a Russian combat vehicle.
Subsequently, Chinese experts claimed that the reason for the start of these design works was difficulties with combat work at night: they say, the Tor-M1 complex did not have built-in night vision devices, which prompted the Chinese military to decide on a deep modernization of the Russian air defense system.
For several years, Chinese gunsmiths from the state-owned China Aerospace Scientific and Industrial Corporation (CASIC) have been painstakingly studying the mechanical base, vertical launcher, target search algorithms, and, in general, the software of the Russian anti-aircraft missile system.
The work on the creation of the Chinese short-range air defense system lasted about ten years, and ended in 2015, when the Chinese side officially announced the creation of the HQ-17 air defense system (otherwise known as the Hongqi-17, or the Red Banner-17).
The new anti-aircraft missile system turned out to be surprisingly similar in appearance to the Russian Tor-M1 air defense system. However, according to the assurances of the Chinese gunsmiths, they have significantly "refined the capabilities of the system," and also developed their own high-terrain tracked chassis for the HQ-17 complex.
Subsequently, a wheeled modification for the export version of the air defense system appeared, which was first shown at the Zhuhai Air Show in China in 2018.
