And now, something about the strange nomenclature of "AFT" and "AKD" as shown above:
The
"HJ-10" designation, previously believed to be the Chinese Hellfire ATGM equivalent is actually the
AFT-10 NLOS missile, as it is revealed here.
The Sino-Hellfire's real designation is actually
"AKD-10", as the
"K" and
"D" in the designation stands for "Air-to-Ground/
Kong-
Di/空地", while the
"F" and
"T" in the AFT-10 stands for "Anti-Tank/
Fan-
Tanke/反坦克".
Here, an official commermorative coin for the successful development of the AKD-10A improved Sino-Hellfire, that has also been spotted during the September 2015 Parade carried by a Z-10 attack helicopter, along with quad-pack TY-90 anti-helo AAMs. The white/blue basic AKD-10 above shows a significant different and smaller seeker window (derived from the Krasnopol semi-active laser guided artillery round seeker) compared to the new AKD-10A, whose seeker is now reminiscent of the AGM-114 Hellfire:
Similiarily; the ATGM previously known as "HJ-8" is now AFT-8, "HJ-9" is AFT-9 etc. The air-launched variants for the "HJ-8" ATGM are, unsurprisingly, AKD-8.
These are the actual designations for these two systems that has caught so much headache for PLA watchers over the years. It seems like the HJ/Hongjian (meaning "Red Arrow") designation has been reserved for export variants of these ATGMs, while the PLA are using the AKD/AFT designations. Case in point; the new HJ-12 Sino-Javelin ATGM, which still didnt receive its official AFT-designation, indicating that it is still not deployed in the PLA.
Hence, I would request three things:
- Change the designations of all Chinese ATGMs from HJ- to AFT- or AKD- accordingly.
- Add the AKD-10A as a seeker improved variant of the HJ-10 with a tighter CEP (2% vs previous 5%).
- Add an anti-helicopter loadout of the Z-10, Z-19 and Z-9W variants equipped with TY-90 anti helicopter AAMs.
Also, upon further browsing the DB, it seems that the Z-10 "Fierce Thunderbolt" Helicopter misses its 23mm chaingun.