HJ-8C

Description

The HJ-8C (Chinese: 红箭-8C式反坦克导弹; renamed AFT08C after new nomenclature) is one of the variant of HJ-8 family ATGM with revised warhead with tandem probe; these missiles would be the go-to missile for PLAGF after its certification before being replaced by later HJ-8 with new guidance system and low-profile tripod.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• Z-9W

General info

Missile characteristics
Mass	11.4 kg
Guidance	Semi-automatic (SACLOS)
Maximum speed	250 m/s
Missile guidance time	16 secs
Firing range	3 km
Explosive mass	2.04 kg TNTeq
Armour penetration	590 mm

Effective damage

Like its predecessor, the HJ-8C does explosion damage upon hitting the surface of the vehicles. The jet stream of molten metal will also cause shrapnel damages to internal modules and crews of vehicles, alternatively the blast will cause overpressure damage to very light vehicles.

Comparison with analogues

• HJ-8A - HJ-8C's predecessors, outperformed in all aspects especially on penetration
• BGM-71C- The later variant of TOW; HJ-8C still lags behind in most aspects, especially damage and range.
• 9M114 - Outperformed in most aspects especially in speed and range, while having even less penetration to HJ-8C

Usage in battles

By the time HJ-8C entered service, the missile itself was still lagged behind mainstreams of ATGMs at barely 600 mm penetration and rather slow flying speed, as well as the very suicidal 3 km firing range for helicopter (where MANPADS or autocannons will have no problem taking out HJ-8C's carrier out with ease); this will be the case in game as well and at its BR, players has to be extra careful on when and who to fire upon due to the aforementioned flaws. The good news is that HJ-8C is a tandem missile with sufficient penetration against tanks like T-64BV at higher impact angles even with its ERA equipped, but 590 mm is still relatively low to its counterparts albeit most of them are single-stage warheads. Plan ahead and strike enemies from where they wouldn't have expect or sneaking up on their flanks and make sure every shot counts as the explosive content is rather low which has to made every shots on enemies' critical components.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Higher penetration than its predecessors with tandem warhead
• Sufficiently large caliber for a missile

Cons:

• Retained relatively low explosive content for devastating damages
• Still slower than its counterparts
• Rather short firing range at 3 km

History

See also: HJ-8A

Due to the lack of information on later variants, the only known occasion of its first appearance was in a certain country where both the HJ-8C/E and BGM-71 TOW were competing for the market in 1996; the new missile featured a revised warhead with tandem probe for better penetration against ERA and slightly heavier than predecessors.

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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