'Down the Mountain', the Legendary Hawk's Ancient Hanud Missile Sent by Spain to Ukraine

Following in the footsteps of Germany, France and the United States, which first sent air defense systems (hanud) to Ukraine, Spain has recently also declared to join as a 'donor' of the hanud system, especially recently that Ukraine received a massive missile attack from Russia. Unlike the types of missiles delivered by other NATO partners, what Spain will be sending are old medium-range missiles.

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Although relatively old, the MIM-23 Hawk missile to be sent by Spain is known to have a good reputation and battle proven. Quoting from epe.es (13/10/2022), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference announced that Spain will provide four launchers of MIM-23 Hawk missiles to Ukraine, as part of arms deliveries to Kiev against Russia.

"I welcome Spain's announcement today that it will provide four Hawk launchers to strengthen Ukraine's air defenses," Stoltenberg said at a news conference at the end of a two-day meeting of allied defense ministers. Stoltenberg also announced that NATO would send "hundreds" of jammers to Ukraine to neutralize Russian and Iranian drones.

The NATO leader has also confirmed a comprehensive aid package that will consist of winter materials to deal with low temperatures and equipment against Russian and Iranian drones.

This missile is clearly not young anymore, but the title of battle proven is firmly attached to this medium-range missile made by Raytheon. The success of knocking down dozens of fighter jets in various conflicts throughout the Cold War era made opposing fighter pilots think twice about trying out the magic of this missile that can shoot up to Mach 2.7.

Hawk's Ancient Hanud Missile

In a configuration of three missiles in one launcher (fire unit), each guided missile with semi-active homing weighs 627 kg with a blast-fragmentation warhead weighing 74 kg. Powered by a solid-fuel rocket engine, the Hawk missile is capable of pursuing fighter jets up to a distance of 40 km, while if forced to do so, the minimum firing range is 1,500 meters.

If the opponent's fighter jet tries to dodge maneuvers, Hawk missiles that have been equipped with anti-jamming devices and deceptive counter-measures can serve targets that maneuver up to 9G. The I-Hawk's glide height limit is 18,000 meters. 

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Because it is targeted to bulldoze targets at a distance of tens of kilometers, the size of this missile cannot be considered 'cute', the Hawk has a length of 5.08 meters, a diameter of 0.37 meters and a wingspan of 1.19 meters.

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