HAWK Air Defence Equipment:
The United States is considering sending older HAWK air defence equipment from storage to Ukraine to help it defend against Russian drone and cruise missile attacks.
- The HAWK interceptor missiles would be an upgrade to the Stinger missile systems a smaller, shorter-range air defence system – that the United States has already sent to blunt Russia’s invasion.
- HAWK : ‘Homing All the Way Killer’, entered service with the US Army in 1959, during the Vietnam war.
- It underwent several upgrades, including a major one in 1971 that produced the so-called I-HAWK (or improved HAWK), with a kill probability of 85%.
- The HAWK system was the predecessor to the PATRIOT missile defence system.
- US forces largely stopped using HAWK from the early years of the new century.
