| Country: |
People's Republic of China |
| Alternate Name: |
Guardian 2 |
| Class: |
BSRBM |
| Basing: |
Road mobile |
| Length: |
4.58 m |
| Diameter: |
0.273 m |
| Launch Weight: |
505 kg |
| Payload: |
Single warhead |
| Warhead: |
HE, submunitions |
| Propulsion: |
Single-stage solid |
| Range: |
80 km |
| Status: |
Operational |
| In Service: |
2001 |
Details
The Guided WM-80 is a battlefield short-range, road mobile, solid propellant ballistic missile system designed for military bombardment. It is the guided version of the WM-80, an unguided rocket artillery system deployed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). An extended range version was also developed. All three systems are deployed from Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) vehicles.
The Guided WM-80 system is designed as a battlefield support and bombardment weapon. The TEL vehicle system is highly mobile and the missile can be fired in a short period of time, giving it the capability to engage military units on a battlefield. The accuracy of the system is likely sufficient to allow for the targeting of specific units, providing effective artillery support or strike capabilities. Though each individual missile is unlikely to do enough damage to shut down a facility or demoralize a population, the system is fully capable of being deployed in large numbers. The small size of the system results in a relatively low cost per missile, and each TEL vehicle carries eight missiles. This allows the WM-80 system to be used for a general bombardment of facilities or population centers, as well as for accurate strikes against military targets.
The Guided WM-80 system launches a 150 kg warhead up to a range of 80 km (50 miles). This warhead can be equipped with conventional high explosives, designed for either a large blast or fragmentation, or 380 small submunitions. The missile uses inertial navigation with a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system. The resulting accuracy is unknown, but is likely quite high. An extended range version exists with a range of 120 km (75 miles), but without a guidance system. Each missile has a launch weight of 505 kg, a length of 4.58 m and a body diameter of 0.273 m. The TEL vehicle weighs 34,000 kg when loaded with the maximum of 8 WM-80 missiles and can reach speeds of up to 70 km/hr (43 mph) on the road.
The original WM-80 rockets entered service in the PRC in 1983. The guided version was first reported in 1999 to having finished development, so its completion likely occurred shortly beforehand. A new version called the Guardian 2 was first displayed in 2002. This system has a diameter of 0.406 m, a range of 280 km (174 miles) and carries a GPS guidance system. The increased size of the missile results in the TEL vehicle only carrying three missiles, as opposed to the previous eight. The state of the program is currently unknown. It may currently be in production.(1)
Footnotes
- Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, Issue 50, ed. Duncan Lennox, (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2009), 33.
