MIM-23 Hawk: these are the missiles of the Spanish Army that will be sent to Ukraine
ESIt seems that after many announcements that came to nothing, Spain will finally send missiles to Ukraine to help defend it from Russian attacks.
The announcement of the shipment of these weapons was communicated yesterday by Oleksii Reznikov, Minister of Defense of Ukraine, on a message posted on Twitter at 20:09 CET. Specifically, the shipment would consist of four MIM-23 Hawk systems, although Reznikov has indicated that "more Hawks are on the way".
The MIM-23 HAWK is a medium-range surface-to-air missile manufactured by the US company Raytheon. It is a very old model: the first copies entered service in the US in 1962. The Spanish Army acquired 24 launchers in 1965 and another 12 in 2001, the latter second-hand units from the US Army. These systems have been subjected to successive modernization plans, being updated today to the PIP III version, the most recent update plan, put into operation in 1989. As reported by the magazine Defensa last year, it is expected that the Spanish Army continues to operate this air defense system beyond 2030.
The 36 launchers that the Spanish Army has are part of the 74th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment (RAAA 74), based in Seville. In total, these systems are spread over six batteries, with six launchers per battery (each launcher can fire three missiles). According to the Spanish Army, these missiles have a maximum range of 40 kilometers, with a maximum operational ceiling of 18,000 meters. They can reach a speed of Mach 2.5 (2,981.7 km/h). The air defense system can detect, identify, track and destroy air targets at medium and low altitude.
You can see here a video of a RAAA 74 exercise with HAWK missiles in October 2013, carried out at the "Médano del Loro" Shooting and Maneuvering Range in Mazagón (Huelva) and in which five such missiles were launched:
---
Main photo: Ejército de Tierra.
|
Don't miss the news and content that interest you. Receive the free daily newsletter in your email: |
- Most read
- US F-35A fighters flying with Polish F-16s over Poland at a time of great tension
- The brutal 'touch and go' of a Lufthansa Boeing 747 at Los Angeles Airport
- The deployment of Spanish soldiers of the Regulars and BRILAT near Russian territory
- Eurofighter vs F-35: the opinions of professional pilots on these advanced fighters
- The firearms used by the Pontifical Swiss Guard, the smallest army in the world
- Sierra Army Depot, a huge United States base with hundreds of Abrams tanks stored
- Portugal confirms that it has begun its transition to the F-35 and indicates bad news for Spain
Opina sobre esta entrada: