PL-11 (missile)

PL-11
Typeair-to-air missile
Place of originPeople's Republic of China
Service history
Used byPeople's Republic of China
Specifications
Length3.7 m (12 ft 2 in)[1]
WarheadHigh explosive blast-fragmentation

EngineSolid fuel rocket
Operational
range
75 km (47 mi)[1]
Maximum speed Mach 4[1]
Guidance
system
Semi-active radar homing[1]
Launch
platform
aerial

The PL-11 (Chinese: 霹雳-11; pinyin: Pī Lì-11; lit. 'Thunderbolt-11') is a medium-range semi-active radar homing (SARH) air-to-air missile (AAM) developed by a subsidiary of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology in the People's Republic of China. It is a development or copy of the Italian Aspide AAM, which in turn was developed from the American AIM-7 Sparrow. The PRC may have started license production of the Aspide using imported parts but the license was cancelled following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Development started in 1990,[2] and the first live-fire test occurred in 2002 from a Shenyang J-8 IIB.[3]