The Hsiung Feng IIE surface-to-surface cruise missile, also known as “The Brave Wind”.
The Hsiung Feng IIE HF-2E is fundamentally a completely different design, believed to be similar to the US Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missile. Its launch weight is believed to be in the range of 3,300–3,500 lb (1,500–1,600 kg), including its solid boosters. It is essentially a tactical land attack cruise missile designed for use against military target sets, particularly air-defense fire units and command-and-control facilities, and its relatively small warhead size and the rather limited number of missiles planned for procurement clearly suggest that this is not a “first strike” weapon.
The HF-2E land attack cruise missile is believed to be powered by a Taiwanese domestic turbofan engine. This engine is based on the technology and experience of the Microturbo 078 turbojet engine on the Hsiung Feng 2 anti-ship cruise missile. It has a thrust of about 3.6 kN. With a standard 1,000 lb (450 kg) warhead, it is said to have a maximum range of 700 km. Other types of warheads are thought to be in development, such as cluster submunitions and a hard target penetrator warhead.
Hsiung Feng IIE weighs about 1.6 tons, 600 cm in length, and 510 mm in diameter. The HF-2E can reach a maximum speed of Mach 0.85, guided by INS and commercial GPS with in-flight waypoints and corrected by digital maps matching and forward-looking imaging infrared seeker with autonomous target recognition for terminal guidance.
Taiwan’s ambitions don’t stop there. According to a report, the design breakthroughs have released enough space inside the missile to allow it to carry more fuel and extend its range to more than 2,000 km. Taiwan’s ultimate goal is to develop a missile with a range of up to 5,000 km.
The HF-2E missile is primarily deployed operationally in ground-mobile launchers. The launcher vehicle carries the missiles in protective aluminum box launchers, with wings and control fins retracted, conceptually similar to the trailer-mounted mobile launchers for Tien Kung Sky Bow series surface-to-air missiles and HF-2 coastal defense missiles. The launchers are normally be based in hardened shelters at military installations, with deployment to remote, pre-surveyed launch sites during alert situations.
, the HF-2E land attack cruise missile is not a derivative of the Hsiung Feng 2 HF-2 anti-ship missile.){kind=link}