CY-1

The CY-1 (Chang Ying 长樱, "Long Tassel", often erronesously referred as "Chian Yu", 劍魚, or "Swordfish") is a Chinese anti-submarine rocket carried on a variety of surface platforms, including the Luda class missile destroyers and Jiangwei class missile frigates. To date only a small number of CY-1 is known to have been produced and deployed on trial basis, despite the fact that it had first appeared on the defense exhibitions held in China in the late 1980's. [http://www.sinodefence.com/navy/navalmissile/cy1.asp]

The CY-1 is believed to similar in operation to the U.S. Navy ASROC. There is little information available regarding the development history, performance, and exact status of the missile, but it is understood that a few of the missiles were deployed on the PLA Navy Type 051 (Luda class) destroyers and Type 052H2G (Jiangwei-I class) frigates.www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG334.pdf] The CY-1 is basically an anti-submarine torpedo of either the ET52 or Yu-7 class, delivered by a ballistic rocket. The delivery vehicle features four small stabilising fins and four control surfaces, and is powered by a solid-fuel rocket motor. The maximum range claimed by the developer was 10 nautical miles (or 18 km).

Based on the limited information released by the manufacturers as well as the Chinese own claim, the CY-1 is not a ASW missile as it is often referred, because one of the requirement for missile is to have guidance in its flight, and this is exactly what CY-1 lacks. The missile is fired into the general direction of the target submarine as an unguided rocket, and the guidance does not kick in until after the payload, namely, the torpedo has entered water. As a result, the official Chinese term of Rocket propelled (ASW) torpedo is a much more accurate description for this weapon. When the payload is a depth charge instead of the torpedo, the weapon is referred as (long range) ASW rocket.

Though originally tested onboard Luda class missile destroyers and Jiangwei class missile frigates, the CY-1 can be carried by any surface combatant with C-801/802/803 launchers, from which the CY-1 can be launched, thus increasing the versatility and reducing the cost. In addition, a version is further modified so that it can be launched from torpedo tubes of submarines like the C-801, but there is not any confirmation that this version has entered the service. In an effort to boost possible export, the CY-1 has also been modified to carrying a various range of light torpedoes, such as that of USA, Italy, and Russian. However, there is no known export as of 2007.

The CY-1 is also known to have been tested on the Type 039 submarine.

References