PL-17 Missile: China's New Super-Long Range Hunter #shorts

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]round numbers, >> [music] >> the PL-17 reaches more than twice as far. And it isn't a prototype on a stand. Chinese state media first reported entry into operational service in October 2022.

[00:00:14]By 2023, the People's Liberation Army Air Force was releasing official imagery.

[00:00:21]Formations of J-16 strike fighters carrying mixed loadouts of PL-10, PL-12, >> [music] >> PL-15, and the massive PL-17. That photograph is the moment the PL-17 stopped [music] becoming speculation and became inventory. The motor is a dual-use solid [music] rocket. Two propellant burns separated by a coast phase.

[00:00:45]So, the missile arrives at the target with energy in the tank rather than gliding in. Vectoring at the nozzle for terminal maneuver. Top speed above Mach 4. Mid-course guidance by inertial navigation, satellite queuing, and a two-way data link. Terminal seeker in multi-mode, an active electronically scanned array radar, plus a passive anti-radiation sensor that picks up the emissions of exactly the targets it was designed to kill. The PL-17 isn't a dog fighting missile.

[00:01:19]The PL-17 is a hunter. The targets are American