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Wan Chien

Taiwanese air-launched cruise missile

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The Wan Chien (Chinese: 萬劍; pinyin: Wànjiàn; Wade-Giles: Wan4-chien4; Tâi-lô: Bān-kiàm; lit. 'ten thousand swords') is an air to ground cruise missile developed and produced by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) of Taiwan.

01Design and development

It partly resembles the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon and the Storm Shadow. Serial production was expected to start in 2015. Full operational capability was declared in 2018. It is functional in both a ground strike role and a naval strike role. The codename for the development and initial production of the Wan Chien was "Project God’s Axe" (神斧).

After the completion of initial production NCSIST began working on a long range variant with a 400km range.

02Service history

The Wan Chien entered service in 2011. The primary launch platform is the AIDC F-CK-1 C/D.

In 2022 annual production was approximately 50 missiles a year. Production was expected to end in 2024 but in 2023 funds were allocated to extend production of the improved version through 2028.

03General characteristics

  • Platform: Aircraft launched
  • Engine: Turbine
  • Range: 200 km, 240 km
  • Guidance: GPS enabled
Watch videos about Wan ChienExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Wan Chien, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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