so basically we are screwed?
no, but i do think some of these purchases are quite shortsighted.
The 054a's were very much a political purchase IMO. They were HEAVILY subsidised by the Chinese, which is why they were bought. I dont think the PN would have if not for this.
the HQ-16's were the only available option at the time in mass production. I made this argument before but, seeing the way things are playing out in the ME atm, i would say maybe having a mediocre, but widely adopted missile may actually be better than a high end solution in limited numbers.
The PLA has huge stocks, now not to say they would for sure provide access to them during war, but under the hopes they do, it would create a pretty sustained stockpile for the Pak forces to pull upon when our inventories are depleted.
OTOH, the HQ-16 and HQ-9 are probably not very well suited to the kind of threats we have.
The HQ-16A was designed from the 9M38 BUK missile
Until the HQ-16C, you dont see any airframe modifications.
What we likely see here is HQ-16A probably retains the motor tech/design of the 9M38 with Chinese electronics and maybe new guidance laws, who knows. But the ranges of the HQ-16A and 9M38 are identical. I would deduce that the two missiles have similar performance, but due to Chinese electronics advancements, would probably fare better in certain combat environments. OTOH, none of this could be true and it could literally just be a licensed 9m38 mated to Chinese radars and systems. Point is, the performance is likely similar.
With HQ-16B, you will have obviously seen new motor tech. The HQ-16B basically doubles the range, i would expect new SRM tech, but id expect that the electronics/guidance would have probably remained the same, but with new flight control/guidance laws as a result of the more powerful motor.
With HQ-16C, theres not much details but we see new midbody strakes etc, because its deployed on PLAN ships, my assumption is we see a general refresh, with particular attention being paid to its onboard electronics, ensuring they're capable and up to scrach in case of any conflict with the USN, who are arguably bringing some of the worlds top, if not, the best EW systems to the fight, so the key here was to ensure these missiles would still be able to perform in a complex environment like that.
Then HQ-16FE is just new everything, i dont need to explain that one.
So back to 9M38/HQ-16A, it has a max target interception speed of Mach 4, so in theory, targets like BrahMos etc should be within its umbrella, but the conditions probably have to be on the more ideal side. But the biggest downfall is the lack of ability to deal with large swarm attacks- this is true for the Naval version, maybe not necessarily for the land version, because the limitation on the naval version is from the Illuminators which are a copy of the old soviet MR-90 "front dome". Its why we see the newest flights of 054A replace them with new AESA ones.
