TY-90
Contents
Description
The TY-90 (天燕-90; Sky Swallow, also known as AKK-90) is a Chinese infrared homing air-to-air missile. It was introduced in Update "Danger Zone".
Introduced in the 1990s as a product of NORINCO for surface-to-air defense system, TY-90 was also designated as the first "dedicated anti-rotorcraft missile" ever invented; thanks to its overall lightweight frame and UFO-like trajectory, this missile gives light helicopters a chance to fight back against aircraft which fly upon players and the last thing they would see is the trail of TY-90.
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
| Missile characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Mass | 20 kg |
| Guidance | IR |
| Aspect | All-aspects |
| ECCM | Yes |
| Lock range (rear-aspect) | 6 km |
| Lock range (all-aspect) | 6 km |
| Launch range | 6 km |
| Maximum speed | 2 M |
| Maximum overload | 20 G |
| Missile guidance time | 16 secs |
| Explosive mass | 1.5 kg TNTeq |
Effective damage
TY-90 with its 1.5 kg TNT equivalent of explosive fillers can cause blast and shrapnel damage against both aircraft and rotorcrafts.
Comparison with analogues
FIM-92 Stinger; 9M39 Igla; Mistral - The trio of MANPADS-based helicopter AAMs, due to their nature of MANPADS, the overall locking range and overload is nowhere close to the TY-90, making them falls in short in this sector.
Starstreak- Only found of British's AH Mk.1 Apache as its AAM option, the Mach 3 speed and 7 km range of Starstreak can certainly shoot down other rotorcrafts faster; However, it suffers from the lack of proximity fuse and thus requires skill players to lead the missile onto the target.
Usage in battles
Currently available to Chinese helicopters from Z-9W to Z-10, TY-90 is their best friend against air targets: the overall overload and speed are sufficient enough to even shoot down jets at transonic speed, which is especially deadly at low-tired battles. Depending on the heat signature and the range of the target, the best acquisition range for TY-90 would be within 4 km where most aerial targets would be locked by the heat seeker; in case players didn't find the target, use the gunner sights to help to search for targets, then unleash hell upon them; players who didn't do enough maneuvers will certainly meet their miserable end of being blasted by TY-90. Making helicopters with TY-90 dubbed "a flying SPAAG".
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 20G tracking overload
- All-aspect tracking
- Electric Counter Counter Measures
Cons:
- Slow speed, can be outrun by some aircraft
- Relatively low explosive mass
History
At early 1990s, PLAGF deemed that conversion of MANPADS onto helicopters would not be sufficient for future battlefields where heat-suppression system will be commonplace, after the unknown development process, the earliest variant DY-90 appeared in the 5th Zhuhai Airshow as a ground-based SAM system; where later TY-90 was incorporated onto wheeled chassis such as WZ551 (known as Yitian 倚天) or various PLAGF HUMMEV-like vehicles. The navalized version HQ-10/FN-3000 was upgraded with the seeker from QW series MANPADS and served as the CIWS missiles for PLAN and their export vessels.
But up to present time, no records of TY-90 or DY-90 have any recorded sales.
Media
Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.
See also
Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:
- reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;
- references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.
External links
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- topic on the official game forum;
- other literature.
