China Aids Taliban With Missiles
12/10/2010 - Aviation Week - David A. Fulghum,Robert Wall

Chinese missiles are believed to be in the hands of Taliban groups in Afghanistan that are fighting NATO forces, triggering fears that China and Iran have become the conduit for advanced, shoulder-fired, anti-aircraft weapons to fundamentalist Muslim fighters in the region.

The British mil itary contends that Chinese specialists have been seen training Taliban fighters in the use of infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles. This charge is supported by a May 13, 2008, classified State Department document telling U.S. officials to confront Chinese officials about missile proliferation.

China is developing knockoffs of Russian designed man-portable air defense systems (manpads), including the QW-1 and later-series models. The QW-1 Vanguard is an all-aspect, 35-lb. launch-tube and missile that is a reverse-engineered, Russian-made SA-16 Gimlet (9K310 Igla-1).

China obtained SA-16s from Unita rebels in Zaire who had captured them from Angolan government forces. The 16g missiles have a slant range of about 50,000 ft. The QW-1M is a variant that incorpor ates even more advanced SA-18 Grouse (9K38 Igla) technology.

So far, rocket-propelled grenades fired from short range using infrared tracking have been the weapons of choice in attacks on NATO aircraft in Afghanistan, U.S. officials say. But although there have been no attacks using manpads, "we act as if they exist," a senior British officer notes. "We know they are out there," he says, alluding to the proliferation of increasingly advanced missiles on the black and gray markets.

In fact, NATO officials know new-design manpads are being moved around the region, according to the classified U.S. State Department document dated May 13, 2008, among the WikiLeaks cables. U.S. officials were instructed to provide pictures of Chinese QW-1 missiles to the Chinese government in Beijing that were found in Iraq and ask how such missiles were transferred.

"In April 2008, Coalition forces recovered from a cache in Basra, Iraq, at least two Chinese-produced Iranian-supplied QW-1 manpads that we assess were provided by Iran to Iraqi Shia militants," the cable says. "The date of production for the recovered QW-1 systems is 2003, but it is not known when these particular launchers were transferred by China to Iran or when the launchers entered Iraq.

"Beijing has typically responded by asserting that its sales are in accordance with international law, that it requires end-users to sign agreements pledging not to retransfer the weapons, or disingenuously in the judgment of [U.S. government ] technical experts that it cannot confirm that the weapons recovered by Coalition forces in Iraq are actually Chinese in origin."

Talking points in the cable also allege that Chinese weapons have been sent to Afghanistan.

"Iran is the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism," the cable continues. "We know that Iran has provided Chinese weapons to extremist groups in Iraq and Afghanistan that are using these weapons to kill Americans and Iraqis, something we take very seriously. Iran is not a responsible purchaser of military equipment."

Other U.S. officials are less sure about the Chinese missile th reat.

"[China] would not be doing something directly that involves weapons used in the fight against the U.S.," a U.S. official says. "If they got caught, it would bring down a pall on all their dealings with the U.S. that they are trying to cultivate and it would stoke the far right to portray China as the bad guys and raise the flag of the evil [People's Republic of China].

But the State Department is less sanguine. "We understand that you have provided Iran with QW-1 manpads in the past, and Iran has publicly asserted that it produces the Misagh-1, which is based on the Chinese QW-1," the cable states.

The message goes on to urge the Chinese to insist that Iran stop illicit retransfers of Chinese-origin weapons, or Iranian-produced weapons based on Chinese designs, to non-state insurgent or terrorist groups.