HJ-73
Contents
Description
The HJ-73 (Chinese: 红箭-73) is a ATGM developed in Mainland China during the 1970s based on a Soviet missile-9K11 Malyutka (AT-3 Sagger)
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
Due to the nature that it was based on 9K11 ATGM of Soviet Union, they shares all the same traits like they are MCLOS missiles and they fly in a struggling speed to most of its counterparts in the same BR range
Effective damage
This missile comes with 2.6kg TNT equivalent of TNT and having the damage as any other HEAT shells and also possibly a certain overpressure damage to lighter vehicles
Comparison with analogues
HJ-73 is pretty much a reverse-engineered 9K11 ATGM so they perform the same in many aspects and in its BR range, only Japanese Type 64 ATGM falls way behind it in terms of its speed while their NATO counterpart SS.11 served better in terms of speed.
Usage in battles
Since its carrier is ZBD-86, the reverse-engineered BMP-1, HJ-73 is a MCLOS missile that requires players using their WASD key to control the missile to its target, making the launcher vulnerable to any possible attacks from enemies, so the best way to utilize this missile is stay hidden and look for targets that are not in move, then deliver your blow with this missile.
Pros:
- Sufficient speed at its tier.
- Can used as a last-ditch weapon in case gun barrel was knocked out.
- Penetration is sufficient at its tier.
Cons:
- MCLOS meaning that players have to keep full control of the missile with your keyboard.
- It has trajectory that makes it not suitable for close-quarter combat.
History
During the late 1960s was the Sino-Soviet border conflicts, especially at Zhenbao /Damansky Island where Mainland Chinese captured a T-62 from the Soviet Border Troops, PLA found they were in the lower hand in terms of anti-armor weaponry, especially in ATGM (which, there was none in Mainland China); but a long-time friend of Mainland China- North Korea (DPRK) provided some 9K11 Malyutka (AT-3 Sagger) missiles samples for them and Romania later provided another batch of samples for the Mainland in 1973, they started the story of this old yet sufficient missile's journey in Mainland China service.
After multiple departments and research facilities efforts, finally in 1979, HJ-73 has passed state tests and ready to be commissioned in PLAGF, later during the Sino-Vietnamese War, it proved its ability by "sniping" a Vietnamese commanding post 2100m apart from the launching site and all 4 of those missile launched hit its target.
Later with its latest HJ-73E modification, they served as a last-ditch weapon for PLAGF/PLA Airborne troops/PLANMC to handle heavier targets with its tandem warhead.
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
Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:
- topic on the official game forum;
- encyclopedia page on the weapon;
- other literature.
