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Via @中国火箭军 from Weixin
 
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有HQ-7支援车的图片吗

Also does the FM-90 have a additional radar vehicle in addition to the AESA radar mounted on 6x6 chassis vehicle , for example the bangladeshi version (correct me if I'm wrong)

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Look at how persistent and meticulous Henri Kenhmann (East Pendulum) is . All originated from one single picture with very vague clue posted by an amateur at some Chinese forum…
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Amazing tracing work — a close-up look: those few Chinese characters seen are simply too little as well as quite generic to serve as a clue!

but eventually he managed to come out with all the details tracing the lone DF-17 TEL in question back to the Sanjiang Group in Beijing Street, near to the Xiaohan Avenue in Xiaogan city, Hubei. How many individuals can do that under some significant barriers like in this case?

He's truly a remarkable and useful OSINT analyst and expert on China's military supposed he chooses such direction :coffee: Read on below!

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From the massage parlor to the DF-17 hypersonic glider


By Henri Kenhmann — East Pendulum
(2020-06-15)

What is the link between a massage parlor practicing the Japanese Shiatsu technique, and the new Chinese hypersonic glider DF-17? None, a priori…

And yet, an amateur photo, posted on a local Chinese forum last Friday, creates this link by putting in the same frame a barely identifiable advertising panel, and a brand new transporter-erector-launcher (TEL).

We can see in close-up on this photo, visibly taken in front of a large boulevard, a 5-axle TEL of the DF-17. The latter is easily recognizable thanks to the images and videos of the military parade last year, when 16 of these machines were shown for the first time in front of the whole world.

A protective plastic film, in any case it seems to be, is stuck on each of the side windows of the cabin, which is painted in dark military green, like the other TELs of the DF-17 already in service. (1)

It will be noted that the upper part of the vehicle is closed by a metallic “cover” painted in white gray, while the TEL present at the parade of the 70th Anniversary of the People's Republic of China were uncovered, and the missiles with their glider were completely exposed from above. The rest of the vehicle is in gray, green and beige camouflage, the same as in 2019, but strangely gives an old or worn look.

Behind the vehicle is what appears to be a small parking lot and a large building, rather modern but not identifiable at first glance. We only notice an advertising panel, partially hidden by trees, on which mentions “御尚… 妙指压”.

The last two words, "指压", mean Shiatsu, literally "finger pressure", a manual therapy from Japan. It is therefore a safe bet that it is a massage parlor.

DF-17 @East Pendulum 01.jpeg

An amateur photo is posted on Friday June 12 on a local Chinese forum, showing a TEL of the DF-17

DF-17 @East Pendulum 02.jpeg

TELs from DF-17 during the military parade in 2019

The story should have ended here. A TEL identified as that of the DF-17, but in an environment that lacks an obvious benchmark, is difficult to locate…

There is indeed this clue of the massage parlor, the name of which would be “御尚” or would contain these. But it seems impossible to associate the full or partial name of a massage parlor, which has hundreds of thousands in China, with an equally partial building facade.

After some rather opportunistic tests, the fears of the beginning are verified - There are far too many massage parlors in China bearing this name, and research on Google precisely dispels the myth of Google, in the context of China.

But Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of Google, does little better. The search results do not display the images of the massage parlors found. We would then need a tool, accessible in Chinese data and similar to Google Maps Street View, so that we can both search by keyword and move around the premises as if we were there to view the buildings.

A first attempt on Baidu Map unfortunately does not give satisfaction - the Web version returns approximate results, and the mobile version, in other words in "Apps", does not have a man-machine interface which facilitates searches for national coverage (which remains understandable for nominal use cases).

After testing another tool but without success, and before giving up for lack of means, the web version of Tencent Maps seems to have given hope. It allows you to group the search results by province (and by city of direct administration), and a good part of urbanized areas in China is covered by the "Street View" function.

It is therefore with Tencent Maps and its Street View function, and using as keyword “御尚” (the other combinations are unfortunately not conclusive), that a list of 294 establishments distributed in practically all the Chinese provinces was incorporated.

Among these establishments, some are indeed a massage or beauty salon but do not correspond to the photo in question, others are restaurants (we can also be surprised by the number of Chinese fondue restaurants that borrow the same name…), plus a part that cannot be viewed on Street View. One of them, located in Xiaogan (孝感), a city in Hubei province, finally shows some interesting signs.

2020-06-15-Du-salon-de-massage-au-planeur-hypersonique-DF-17-09.jpg
The street view using the Tencent Maps tool

Indeed, if we do not see any identical advertising panel on this view compared to that of the photo in question, the architectural structure of the building remains however similar, in particular at the level of the stone posts of the large entrance, the colors of the wall as well as decorative wall prints.

And a deeper research on this massage parlor and this place in particular allows to say that the name of the establishment marked on this Street View of Tencent Maps dates in fact from 2016, and since the parlor has changed its name, which is of "御尚至尊港派足浴" now. The view provided by the tool is therefore obsolete.

Continuing then on this track, we quickly find much more recent images of the show on the local rating sites, which confirmed without any harm that the TEL of the DF-17 on the amateur photo was indeed well in Xiaogan, in the province of Hubei, and more precisely on Xiaohan Avenue (孝汉大道), in front of the Fuhua Boutique Hotel (富华精品酒店).

Using Google Earth type satellite images, and with other details provided by the original photo, we can even assume that the vehicle was not going to continue straight on Xiaohan Avenue, but was rather going turn left at the next intersection.

Many questions arise then, like why a TEL of the DF-17 is in this city? Where does it come from and where does it go?

2020-06-15-Du-salon-de-massage-au-planeur-hypersonique-DF-17-05.jpg

Identification of the place thanks to the rating site photos

2020-06-15-Du-salon-de-massage-au-planeur-hypersonique-DF-17-07.jpg

The position of the TEL in question and its possible route on satellite image

To answer these questions, you just have to… turn left.

In fact, once the vehicle leaves Xiaohan Avenue to go to the left, it will be on Beijing Street (北京路), where part of the Chinese missile giant CASIC's subsidiaries are located, such as:
  • Sanjiang Astronautics Hongfeng Control
  • Sanjiang Astronautics Xianfeng Electron Information
  • Sanjiang Astronautics Wanshan Special Type Vehicles
  • Sanjiang Astronautics Jiangbei Mechanical Engineering
  • Sanjiang Astronautics Wanfeng Technology Development
Note that these entities located along the Beijing Street are all part of the Sanjiang Group (itself a subsidiary of CASIC), better known by its former name "Base 066" and its emblematic ballistic missile DF-11.

Given the appearance of the TEL in question, namely a brand new cabin with protective plastic films on the windows, an upper "cover" in white gray which appears provisional and the rest of the TEL which seems to be worn, the one of the hypotheses is to say that the vehicle would have left the Wanshan Special Type Vehicle factory, located to the east of the city, to reach the other entities on Beijing Street and continue the rest of the installation there.

2020-06-15-Du-salon-de-massage-au-planeur-hypersonique-DF-17-11-1024x575.jpg

The possible route taken by the TEL of the DF-17 (in blue), and the factories of the Sajiang group (in yellow)

If this hypothesis is confirmed, it amounts not only to saying that the TEL of the DF-17 is designed by Sanjiang, but also indicates that this new Chinese weapon called "penetration" against anti-missile systems is in fact a joint project between the two largest Chinese missiles, CASC and CASIC.

It can then be assumed that CASC is responsible for the overall project, including the design of the hypersonic glider by its subsidiary CALT from institutional publications, while CASIC would take care of the development of TEL, and would also probably contribute to the carrier missile that remains not identified to date (see the file "DF-17: What we know about this Chinese hypersonic weapon").

While waiting for new amateur photos on a theme park, a vegetarian restaurant or a luxury goods boutique, with a close-up of a state-of-the-art Chinese weapon, this photo of the TEL from DF-17 to Xiaogan suggests above all that the mass production of this missile with regional reach, and intended to complement the already large panoply of offensive vectors of the Chinese Rocket Force, calmly follows its course.

It also suggests that this type of collaboration between the various Chinese entities, even between the competitors within a common sector, as what we have already observed on the IRBM DF-26 project, would be more widespread than we thought.

(1) From the CCTV-7 television news dated December 2, 2019 - [军事报道] 走进导弹发射先锋营 :战场是最好的课堂对抗是检验自己的磨刀石
 
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