TL-6
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The TL-6 (Tian Long - 6) or Sky Dragon - 6 is a light anti-ship missile, and it is the Chinese equivalent of British Sea Skua light anti-ship missile developed by BAe Dynamics.
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[edit] Development
TL-6 along with the smaller TL-10 are both developed and manufactured by Hongdu Aviation Industry Corporation. The origin of TL-6 is similar to that of TL-10: there are thousands small FAC and patrol boats armed with anti-ship missiles that pose great threats, but it is highly inefficient to use anti-ship missiles such as Harpoon missile and Exocet that are designed against large warships for the destruction of these small boats, thus it is necessary to develop a light anti-ship missile to engage these small yet potentially highly lethal boats.
[edit] Design
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.
[edit] Specification
Very little official information on TL-6 is publicized at its debut at the 5th Zhuhai airshow in 2004 and there was not any more information from the 6th Zhuhai Airshow in 2006 except the following:
[edit] Deployment
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.
[edit] History
At the sixth Zhuhai airshow in 2006, two versions, TL-6A and TL-6B were revealed, A with the television seeker and B with the radar seeker. The manufacturer revealed that plans to develop additional seekers such as imaging infrared were already in progress, but they lags behind the progress of making the TL-6 capable of being launched from other platforms such as aircraft and land.
