HN-5

The HN-5 (or Hong Ying-5 "Red Tassel"), is a family of first generation Chinese man-portable air-defense systems (MANPAD) based on Soviet technology. The literal translation of Hong Ying is Red Tassel, but HN abbreviation is used to avoid confusion with HY (Hai Ying, or Sea Eagle) series anti-ship missiles of Silkworm missile family. The HN-5 series in Chinese hands has been phased out in front-line and first line reserve units by QW series MANPAD, but still being used by militia units.

The HN-5 is a reverse-engineered version of the Soviet Strela 2 (SA-7). Due to the urgent need for MANPADs, North Vietnam provided China with an original sample during the Vietnam War and asked China to produce and supply NVA with copies. However, due to the political turmoil in China, namely, the Cultural Revolution, the reverse-engineering process was slow and by the time the first small production batch was sent to Vietnam for evaluation, the results were ineffective because American aircraft has already adopted ECM to successfully counter HN-5 and its Soviet counterpart the Strela 2. The dimensions and performance of HN-5 is extremely similar to that of Strela 2.