The National Sun Yat-sen Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) operated by the Taiwan government will mass produce an improved version of the Tianjian II (TC2 or Tianjian 2) medium-range air-to-air missile (AAM) to enhance the AIDC F-CK operated by the Republic of China Air Force (RoCAF) -1 The effectiveness of the Ching Kuo Indigenous Defence Fighter (IDF).
The Ministry of Defense (MND) announced on August 3 that NCSIST has completed testing and evaluation of the new variant, which will have extended range performance and will soon begin mass production.
According to MND specifications, the baseline TC2 missile is 3.6 m long and 190 mm in diameter. Its nominal launch weight is 183 kg, including a 22 kg high-explosive fragmentation warhead. Without revealing more details, the Ministry also described TC2 as a BVR active radar-guided air intercept missile with electronic countermeasures (ECCM) capabilities and all-weather, omni-directional, fire-and-forgot. , Multi-target engagement can be comparable to the performance of the American-made AIM-120 Advanced Intermediate-Range AAM (AMRAAM).
TC2 also uses inertial navigation in the middle of the flight, and can receive command updates from the launching aircraft through the data link during the initial phase of the flight. It will then activate its airborne active radar guidance in the final phase of the engagement.
According to reports, the missile has been upgraded to a new rocket engine and improved electronic components, extending its range from 60 kilometers to 80 kilometers.
TC2 is the main air-to-air weapon carried by RoCAF’s FC-1K IDF aircraft, and it can carry four of them in a single attack.
NCSIST earlier developed the 2.87 m long, 90 kg Tien Chien I (TC1) AAM, a short-range weapon that can respond to threats within a range of approximately 8 kilometers-roughly similar to the American-made AIM-9 Sidewinder missile family.
NCSIST launched a naval version of TC1 called Sea Oryx at the end of 2015.
Xiao Wu
