It entered service in the 1990s as the principal anti-submarine weapon of major People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships.
Additional technology may have been reverse engineered from a United States Mark 46 Mod 2 torpedo recovered from the South China Sea in 1978 by Chinese fishermen.
The torpedo was initially equipped with electric propulsion, but inadequate performance led to a redesign powered by Otto fuel II.
Aboard surface warships, it is fired from Type 7424 tripled 324 mm torpedo launchers; these are copies or derivatives of the WASS B515/ILAS-3.
It shares most of the developmental heritage including the A244/S and the Mk 46 Mod 2,[3] but is most notably different in its mechanism of propulsion: a single propeller driven by electric power.