Seven weeks have passed since Spain promised its Hawk surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine, and the first launchers have arrived, as announced by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov on his Twitter. There are more to come, he said.
These missile systems were requested by Ukraine specifically during the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein-6 format in October. Ukraine was particularly concerned by its air defenses after a series of big missile attacks by the russians. Spain stepped up shortly, committing Hawk together with Aspide systems to cover these needs.
Read more: Spain Provides Hawk SAM to Ukraine: What Kind of System It Is and Can It Really Improve Ukraine’s Air Defense
While the Hawks were delivered just now, it took a little less for the Aspide to arrive. Also, the United States has already provided additional ammunition for the Hawks earlier in October. And as we earlier explained, the stocks of these missiles worldwide are vast enough to keep up with the intense needs caused by constant russian shelling.
Based on earlier reports, this first batch of Hawks includes four launchers. Defense Express has already covered the specs of this system in a separate article. Despite being a rather old system originating in the 1960s, it has undergone multiple improvements which make it no worse than an average early '90s air defense system.
Read more: The USA Considering the Possibility to Supply Ukraine With the Patriot Missile Defense Systems – CNN
