Hsiung Feng III

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The Hsiung Feng III (HF-3) (雄風三號, "Brave Wind III") is a missile system currently being developed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology in Taiwan ROC. Very little is known about the HF-3, except that it is an anti-ship missile designed to target PLAN surface vessels, including its Sovremenny class destroyers. It has been speculated that the anti-ship variant is being designed to outperform the Russian-made Sunburn anti-ship missile possessed by the PLAN. It is known that there have been a series of successful test firings of the HF-3 in December 2004.

According to a Liberty Times article on May 10, 2005, the basic R&D phase of the HF-3 was mostly complete by that time, and the system was to under-go various countermeasure tests before entering service. According to the article, the main difficulty in designing the HF-3 involved violent trans-sonic vibrations damaging missile parts; advances in materials science allowed extensive miniaturization of the HF-3 system. It is expected to be deployed aboard the ROC Navy's Lafayette class and Perry class frigates, and may possibly be deployed on the Kwang Hwa VI class missile boats.

In August 2006, Janes subsequently reported that the R&D phase was complete - the first test was conducted in September 2006.

[edit] General characteristics

• Primary Function: Anti-ship missile
• Range: 180-200 km
• Flight altitude: 20-200 m
• Power Plant: Ramjet
• Top Speed: Mach 2-2.5
• Length: Approximately 6 m
• Weight: Approximately 1 ton
• Date Deployed: Unknown - believed to be in production

[edit] See also

• Hsiung Feng I
• Hsiung Feng II
• Hsiung Feng IIE

[edit] External links

• GlobalSecurity article on the HF-3
• Taiwan completes development of HF-III supersonic anti-ship missile Jane's, 4 August 2006