TL-6

The TL-6 (Chinese: 天龙-6; lit. 'Sky Dragon') is an anti-ship missile developed by Hongdu Aviation Industry Group. The missile was marketed via China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) as FL-9 (Chinese: 飞龙-9; lit. 'Flying Dragon'). The missile is also called Nasr missile by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization (AIO).

The TL-6 missile was showcased at Zhuhai Airshow 2004.^[1]

Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation began the development of TL-6 and TL-10 missiles in the mid-1990s, and conducted test fires in the same period. According to a representative of Hongdu in 2004, the TL-6 and TL-10 programs were purely designed for export, and no missile would be inducted into the People's Liberation Army.^[1] Three missile variants were showcased, including the air-to-surface KJ/TL-10B, the surface-to-surface JJ/TL-10A, and the surface-to-surface JJ/TL-6B. TL-6 was tested fire by both surface systems and aircraft. TL-6B also had a radar-guided version under development.^[1]

While TL-10 series is specifically designed to engage boats displacing 500 tons or less, TL-6 series is specifically designed to engage larger naval vessel with displacement up to 1,000 tons. Along with C-704 that covers ships from 1,000 tons to 3,000 tons, and larger anti-ship missiles such as C-802 that covers large ships, China has developed a complete anti ship cruise missile families that covers every displacement class. Western sources have claimed that the Iranian Nasr anti-ship missile is based on TL-6.

Like the anti-ship version of the C-701 and TL-10, TL-6 can also be armed with a television seeker which is interchangeable with TL-10. At the sixth Zhuhai airshow in 2006, the manufacturer revealed the plan already in development to have various platforms including aircraft, surface ships/boats, and from land/vehicle. However, like most light anti-ship missiles in the world, it is certain that this missile would not be launched from submarines, as the manufacturer has confirmed. Like its smaller cousin TL-6, the version that has been successfully completed is the ship-to-ship version, and hence the designation JJ/TL-6 at the sixth Zhuhai airshow in 2006, with JJ stands for Jian Jian, meaning Ship (to) Ship.

many sources claim that Nasr is based on TL-6, there are others that claim Nasr is based on another Chinese anti-ship missile, C-704 instead^{[citation needed]}.

A new version of TL-6 appeared made its public debut at the 7th Zhuhai Airshow held at the end of 2008, together with its smaller cousin TL-1. Developed by Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation, the same manufacturer of TL-6, the new missile is designated as TL-2, and appears almost identical to TL-6. Not much information of TL-2 was released in detail at the air show, and based on scattered technical information published in China, it has been suggested that TL-2 is an upgraded TL-6 with a data link added, so that in addition to the original fire-and-forget capability, the only capability present on TL-10, there is an extra capability present on TL-2: operators can select to attack a different target other than the original one, if a greater threat has been identified after launching TL-2. These are other speculations on TL-2, such as TL-6 was purely for export, while TL-2 is the designation for domestic Chinese use, but these have yet to be verified when more detailed technical information is released in the future. Although the manufacturer has claimed that TL-1 can be deployed from various platform, the sample shown at the 7th Zhuhai Airshow was ship-born only, designated as JJ/TL-2, with JJ stands for Jian Jian (舰舰), meaning Ship (to) Ship.

• Dimensions:
  • Length: 3400 mm - 3500 mm
  • Diameter: 280 mm
  • Wingspan: 900 mm
• Weight: 350 kg - 360 kg
• Warhead: 30 kg, semi-armor piecing
• Powerplant: twin thrust chamber, solid rocket motor
• Speed: Mach 0.8 - 0.9
• Range: 4–35 km
• Guidance: Radar-guided/INS
• Kill probability: 0.85
• Developer: Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation

•  Iran: Islamic Republic of Iran
•  China: People's Republic of China

• [1] Archived 2005-04-26 at the Wayback Machine Report on the 5th Airshow China Zhuhai, Richard Fisher, Jr., PRC, November 1–7, 2004
• China aids Iran's tactical missile programme, Robert Hewson, Janes Defence Weekly, November 11, 2004
• TL-2/6 Archived 2012-03-22 at the Wayback Machine