HQ-7  The HQ-7 (FM-80) (; pinyin: "hóng qí", "red flag" or "red banner") is a Chinese short-range air defense missile. It is an unlicensed, reverse-engineered copy of the French Crotale missile. The missile is deployed on both ships and land-based vehicles. China revealed the export version, FM-80, in the 1989 Dubai Air Show. Unit cost is around $162,000 per launcher and $24,500 per missile. In the late 1970s, China joined the Western powers in an informal alliance against the Soviet Union. At the time, China's military equipment was seriously lagging behind the Soviets in quality, and Beijing sought Western assistance to modernize its military. Countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, France, Germany and Australia responded by providing China with military sales and technological know-how transference, either openly or covertly. China imported some land and sea versions of the Thomson-CSF Crotale missile in 1978-1979 for "evaluation". The Thomson-CSF R-440 Sea Crotale surface-to-air missile (SAM) and Thomson-CSF TSR 3004 Sea Tiger E/F-band radar were installed on the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 051 destroyer "Kaifeng" (109) and Type 052 destroyer "Harbin" (112). The People's Liberation Army (PLA) found the Crotale system to be superior to the HQ-61 SAM, and instructed the 2nd Aerospace Academy (now the China Academy of Defense Technology) to reverse-engineer the Crotale, the 23rd Institute to reverse-engineer the radar and fire control system, and the 206th Institute to develop ground-based vehicle carriers for the SAM. China was able to produce copies of the Crotale (HQ-7) missile for testing in 1983. It was certified for serial production in 1986–1988. China promoted an export version, FM-80, at the 1989 Dubai Aerospace Show. Through the 1990s, the HQ-7 was deployed at People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) bases, on PLA vehicles, and PLAN ships. It was PLAN's standard ship-based air-defense SAM for over a decade, until the introduction of the more capable, longer-range HQ-9. The HQ-7 SAM is used by PLA and PLAAF for short-range air-defense.