Qianwei County

Qianwei County is a county of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of Leshan city.

Coordinates: 29°12′35″N 103°57′04″E / 29.2096°N 103.951°E / 29.2096; 103.951

QW-1 Vanguard

The People's Republic of China-developed QW-1 Vanguard (Qian Wei in Chinese) is an all-aspect man-portable surface-to-air missile, from which a series of missiles were developed.

QW-1

It was first publicly shown at the 1994 Farnborough Air Show as a successor to HN-5 series MANPADS.

Description

The missile reportedly is the Chinese version of 9K310 (SA-16 Gimlet) Igla-1 missile systems incorporating some features of FIM-92 Stinger. According to many domestic Chinese media sources and some sources outside China, Chinese obtained the Soviet samples via Zaire from UNITA captured 9K310 (SA-16) Igla-1 missile from Angola governmental forces. The missile is operated by a two-man team. Once a target is visually detected the assistant selects the launch site and removes end caps from the front and back of the launcher. The gunner then partially depresses the trigger, which activates the electronic battery and opens the coolant bottle, cooling the seeker to operating temperature.

The gunner tracks the target visually, until the missile locks onto the target, indicating this with both a flashing light and an audio tone. The gunner then provides target lead and depresses the trigger all the way. This triggers the booster section of the missile, which projects the missile a safe distance away from the operator before the sustainer motor ignites.