Since the Russian invasion on February 24 2022, Ukraine's air defense missile structure has recognized a layered system, in this case layered types and brands, because Ukraine received supplies of air defense missiles from the United States and Western countries, complementing the existing airborne missile systems from the era USSR. Interestingly, in the near future, the structure of the Ukrainian missile forces will undergo significant changes.
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As quoted from Forbes.com (15/7/2023), there are strong indications that the United States will supply large quantities of MIM-23 Hawk missiles to Ukraine.
Because of the large number to be sent, it is possible that in the future the Hawk missiles will become the backbone of Ukraine's air defense network. Which means that in terms of quantity it exceeds the supply of the Patriot, Crotale and NASAMS anti-aircraft missile systems, which were previously supplied by the West to Ukraine.
News broke last Friday that US officials were negotiating with their Taiwanese counterparts to buy back a dozen Hawk missile batteries from Taipei – which can be estimated at around a hundred launchers. The Hawk missiles began to be phased out by the Taiwanese military in 2015 and replaced with locally designed Hanud missiles.
Still from the same source, the US plans to donate hundreds or more MIM-23 Hawk launchers to Ukraine plus missiles and related equipment, including radars. If the massive supply of Hawk missiles is realized, it will complement one battery (four launchers) of Hawk missiles donated by Spain which has now been in service with Ukraine since October 2022.
Delivery of large quantities of Hawk missiles will help Kiev to resolve a looming crisis, namely the depletion of Soviet-era S-300 and Buk missile stockpiles. Before the outbreak of war with Russia, Ukraine operated 50 S-300 batteries with several hundred launchers.
In 17 months of heavy fighting, Ukraine has lost some 60 S-300 launchers and 15 more Buk launchers to Russian missiles and artillery. But losing the missile launchers is not the greatest threat to Ukraine's air defense systems.
The real crisis is that the Ukrainian air force has been too wasteful to fire dozens of missiles a day to contain Russian fighters, drones, and ballistic and cruise missiles. As is known, the price per unit of Hanud missiles is very expensive and ultimately burdens the donor countries.
Ukrainian industry is currently not producing missiles for the S-300 and Buk batteries. And there are not many missiles of this type (S-300) in the inventory of Ukraine's foreign allies. It is for that reason that NATO countries have pledged to Ukraine all the missile systems they can store, such as IRIS-T, Crotales, NASAMS, Patriot and others – for a total of nearly 20 donated missile batteries already fenced off Ukrainian air space.
As well as being more reliable, firing farther, more accurate, and more resistant to jamming than equivalent Soviet systems, these Western air defenses were sustainable. Kiev can take advantage of the supply of replacement missiles from factories and stockpiles in friendly countries.
Well, the donation of a dozen or more used Hawk missile batteries from Taiwan facilitated by the US would be very helpful to solve the problem above.
The Hawk missile is clearly no longer young, but the title of battle proven is firmly attached to this Raytheon medium-range missile. The success of destroying 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 fly up to Mach 2.7.
In the configuration of three missiles in one launcher (firing unit), each missile with semi-active homing guidance has a weight of 627 kg with a blast-fragmentation warhead weighing 74 kg. Powered by a solid-fuel rocket engine, the Hawk missile is capable of chasing fighter jets up to a distance of 40 km, while if forced, the minimum firing range is 1,500 meters.
The Hawk missile system can be compatible with other, more modern Hanud missile systems in service with Ukraine, including the Norwegian-made NASAMS. Norwegian company Kongsberg, a manufacturer of NASAMS, has developed a new digital command post for the Hawk battery that borrows its main components from NASAMS. It raises the potential that the Ukrainian air force (perhaps) with some effort, can combine the NASAMS and Hawk batteries into one force using the same radar and command post.
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