It was speculated the missile is a copy of AIM-7 when the system was revealed in the late 1970s, though HQ-6 is considerably larger than the AIM-7 Sparrow.

'Thunderbolt-11') is a medium-range semi-active radar homing (SARH) air-to-air missile (AAM) developed by a subsidiary of the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology in the People's Republic of China.

It is a derivate or copy of the Italian Aspide air-to-air missile, which in turn was developed from the American AIM-7 Sparrow.

[5] In October 1994, China unveils a new medium-low-altitude surface-to-air missile system named LY-60 (Chinese: 猎鹰-60; pinyin: Lieying-60; lit.

LY-60 was designed to intercept military aircraft and missiles flying in medium to low altitudes.

The missile was certified in the early 1990s but never began serial production due to insufficient capability against advanced phased array radars.

[10] Each command vehicle is able to command & control up to four HQ-64 batteries,[11] linking up independent HQ-64 batteries to form an integrated air defense net work, and individual HQ-64 network can in turn be integrated into a larger air defense zone.