This was reported by the press service of the Spanish government.
As noted, the supply of surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems was announced following the meeting between the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez on Thursday, October 5, within the framework of the meeting of the European Political Community.
Read more: Spain Provides Hawk SAM to Ukraine: What Kind of System It Is and Can It Really Improve Ukraine’s Air Defense
As media reports, the leaders of the countries discussed the current situation at the front and the head of the Spanish government proposed his counterpart to supply Ukraine with air defense systems to combat drones, as well as appropriate training and equipment for demining.
"The Spanish government will provide Ukraine with six Hawk launchers to combat possible russian bombing of civilian objects and critical infrastructure, as well as to protect the new grain corridor," the report said.
Ukraine has been asking to provide these missiles for a while, and the 1st batch of Spanish Hawk Missiles Arrived in Ukraine early December, 2022.
The MIM-23 "Hawk" is a missile of the previous generation. At some point in time, it was the main anti-aircraft system of the USA and NATO countries during almost the entire Cold War, and was sold in huge numbers. In the United States, it was decommissioned in the 1990s, but it remains in service with about two dozen countries.
Although the MIM-23 Hawk was put into service back in 1960, it has seen four major modernizations since then. In particular, one of the last massive upgrades, the Phase III, was introduced in the 1990s, in fact, just before the Hawk got decommissioned. The last widespread modernization included digitalization of the complex which enabled the Hawk system to simultaneously intercept several targets and destroy them at low altitudes.
The computerization of the MIM-23 Hawk opened doors to further modernization of this air defense system, a.k.a. the Hawk XXI, which is currently in service with Turkiye. Its key feature is the integration of the modern AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar, which is also used in the modern NASAMS air defense system, as well as the general digitalization of all systems of the Hawk.
At the same time, the firepower of the Hawk complex continued to rely on the MIM-23 anti-aircraft missile, which was constantly updated and modernized till the mid-90s.
We still don’t know what configuration of radar systems will be in the Hawks transferred to Ukraine. So the only thing we can say about their specifics for sure is the specs of the MIM-23 missile: target destruction range is up to 45-50 km, target height’s up to 20 km, and missile speed is Mach 2.4. The missile is guided to the target by a semi-active homing head.
But the most important advantage of this complex lies precisely in the fact that there were more than 40,000 of these missiles produced overall – it means that Ukraine is highly unlikely to suffer from a shortage of those in the foreseeable future. However, the obvious disadvantage of the MIM-23 Hawk is that it was decommissioned and put into storage. And this points to the need for its restoration to a combat-capable shape.
Also, as mentioned the older version of the Hawk Ukraine receives, the more radar systems it will include and the more difficult it will be to restore and maintain. For example, the 1970s "Improved Hawk" variant includes: an AN/MPQ-46 target illumination radar, an AN/MPQ-50 targeting radar, an AN/MPQ-51 radar rangefinder, an AN/MPQ-48 low-altitude target detection radar, an AN/TSW-8 data processing and command point, an AN/MPQ-48 vanguard radar post, an AN/MSW-11 control post, and finally the three M192 launchers with three anti-aircraft missiles each.
For comparison, the newer Hawk XXI version consists of: a command post, an AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel observation radar, an AN/MPQ-62 "low-altitude" radar, one or two AN/MPQ-61 illumination radars, and several launchers. Note that the number of targets that can be locked at the same time depends on the number of illumination radars.
Anyway, if we are talking about the need to intercept such targets as cruise missiles and kamikaze drones, and not use this air defense system in the role of an advanced air defense system in the front-line area, then the MIM-23 Hawk can quite cope with this task.
Read more: Improved Hawk Phase III SAM from Spain for Ukraine: Capabilities and Characteristics
