Pakistan first to China's table for HQ-9, HQ-16 missile systems

Pakistan was the first country to start negotiations with China on the import of the HQ-9 medium to long-range active radar homing surface-to-air missile and the HQ-16 truck-based vertically launched surface-to-air missile, according to the April 2015 edition of Kanwa Defense Review.

It's not surprising that Pakistan is choosing the HQ-9 to arm its air force given that its early warning aircraft and the majority of its fighters are Chinese, according to the journal.

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are also among potential customers for China's anti-aircraft missiles, possibly frustrating exports of Russia's S-300 series of long range surface-to-air missile systems, originally developed by the Soviet Union.

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