The Sky Sword 1 (Chinese: 天劍一, Tien Chien I), or TC-1, is a short range infrared guided air-to-air missile. The missile has fire and forget slave-by-radar capabilities. It consists of an imaging infrared seeker, a high explosive warhead, a solid propellant motor and a guidance control unit.^[1] The seeker uses dual spectral IR and has a detection range of 18.5km.^[2] The Sky Sword 1 is also used as a surface-to-air missile by the Antelope air defence system.^[3][4]

The Sky Sword 1 was developed in the mid-1980s and revealed in May 1986, as Taiwan's first indigenous air-to-air missile.^[5] The production of the missile started in 1991 and the air-to-air version entered ROCAF service in 1993. It bears a striking similarity to the American AIM-9 (also in Taiwanese service) and fulfills a similar role on the Indigenous Defense Fighter to the AIM-9 on the F-16. In 2017 NCSIST exhibited a variant of the TC-1 with a larger diameter motor.^[6]

TC-1 missiles were employed during a 2019 training exercise off Taiwan’s east coast.^[7]

• Republic of China Air Force
• Sky Bow
• Sky Sword II