Upgrades Most upgrades of C-802 are funded not by the Chinese government but by the
manufacturers and trading firms themselves. Most upgrades were mainly focused on
the guidance systems. The radar altimeter can be replaced by a newly developed laser altimeter, which is much less likely to be detected via ESM. The laser altimeter can be retrofited to all models of this anti-ship missile family. One of the first upgrades included the incorporation of infrared guidance so that there is a dual guidance system similar to that of the Taiwanese Hsiung Feng II missile. Imaging infrared seeker and a television seeker similar to that of the C-701 anti-ship missile became available later. The imaging infrared seeker is reportedly derived from the imaging infrared seeker technology developed for Chinese air-to-air missiles. These three seekers are interchangeable with the original radar seeker, and can be fitted at naval bases rather than the factory. As the imaging infrared seeker and the television seeker are significantly smaller than
the radar seeker, the manufacturer has taken advantage of the extra space to develop
a variety of combined seekers for dual guidance, which include: radar and imaging
infrared guidance, television and imaging infrared guidance, dual band (infrared and
imaging infrared) guidance, and television and infrared guidance. These combined
seekers can also be fitted at naval bases. According to domestic Chinese news media the manufacturer says that as of the last quarter of 2006 no orders for had been
received for any of the combined seekers except the radar and infrared guidance, due
to funding problems. A datalink associated with the radar seeker and the dual radar and infrared guidance
seeker armed C-802 was added enabled the missile to receive target information
provided by aircraft and this later became a standard feature. The first successful test
fire of the C-802 with the datalink was conducted with Harbin SH-5 ASW equipped with British radar, and soon after, with Y-8X Maritime Patrol Aircraft equipped with Litton Canada radar. This datalink was originally developed for YJ-83/C-803, the successor of the YJ-82/C-802, and adopted for the YJ-82/C-802 upgrade. Based on the datalink associated with the radar seeker, a newer datalink that was
compatible with all three types of seekers was also successfully developed, enabling
the missile to significantly improve its attack capability by allowing the pilot of the aircraft or the crew of the ship to view the images provided by the television or the
imaging infrared seekers, and thus to select the potential targets, just like the way A-10 pilots used the images provided by the imaging infrared seekers of AGM-65 Maverick Air-to-surface missiles for targeting during the Persian Gulf War. Land attack capability is the greatest beneficiary since mobile targets on land can be engaged as a
result, though only when the missile is equipped with television and imaging infrared
seekers, but not the radar seeker. Like the datalink only associated with the radar
seeker, the newer datalink allows the operators to alter the course of the missile and
change targets after launching. However, there are no reports to support the claim
that the operator can terminate the attack via the datalink like that of the Harpoon missile. This new datalink has very little difference from radar seeker associated datalink it is developed from in terms of hardware, the major difference is the
software programs. For the air-launched version, a universal missile launching rail system was also
developed for C-802, reducing the installation time significantly. Furthermore, the new
system allowed virtually any aircraft in the Chinese inventory to be armed with
YJ-82K. For the surface-launched version, Chinese developed a new launcher/storage
container that is able to handle YJ-8 (C-801), YJ-82 (C-802) and CY-1 ASW missiles, and