Spain to supply HAWK and Aspide air defense missiles to Ukraine army.

Spain and France have announced that they will both be delivering ground-based air defense systems to Ukraine, Emma Helfrich reports in The War Zone. This development has taken place as NATO member countries collectively rush to provide Ukraine with advanced air defense capabilities they need to combat attacks like the recent barrage of Russian cruise missiles and drones on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
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Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK (Homing All the Way Killer, commonly referred to as "Hawk") (Picture source: Spanish army)

In a press briefing held Thursday, Oc tober 13, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that Spain would send four medium-range Homing All the Way Killer (HAWK) air defense systems to Ukraine. The country is also providing Ukraine with ground-based Aspide anti-aircraft missile systems, on which 19 Ukrainian servicemen have been training since early October, Emma Helfrich reports. French President Emmanuel Macron has yet to reveal which specific air defense systems France intends to send to Ukraine, but all signs are currently pointing to the Crotale short-range missile system.

The Spanish Ministry of Defense first confirmed the delivery of the Aspide system, which is currently used by the Spanish Air Force, this summer, and Ukrainian forces are projected to complete their training course on the type this October 14. MBDA's Aspide 2000 missile is the powerful upgraded version of the Aspide multi-role missile for use in surface-to-air systems. Its operational performance has been enhanced making the missile capable of engaging attacking aircraft before they can release their airborne stand-off rocket-propelled missiles. Thanks to its outstanding capabilities in range, it can ensure a wide area defense against all types of air threats. The Aspide 2000 missile is equipped with an enhanced single-stage rocket motor to increase the missile speed, lateral acceleration and effective range by as much as 40% compared to the Aspide baseline missile. It incorporates all modern electronic features to improve its guidance characteristics and effectiveness in heavy clutter and ECM environments.

The Aspide 2000 missile is equipped with an enhanced single-stage rocket motor to increase the missile speed, lateral acceleration and effective range by as much as 40% compared to the Aspide baseline missile (Picture source: MBDA)

While there has been no official confirmation from the Spanish government about the HAWK delivery, in a separate press briefing held on October 13, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley specifically mentioned HAWK was requested by Ukraine. Spain currently operates two HAWK types, Phase I and Phase III, but all HAWKs underwent a major improvement program in the 1970s that redesignated the system as Improved-Hawk, or I-HAWK, which is how it's being referenced by the U.S. government.

The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK (Homing All the Way Killer, commonly referred to as "Hawk") is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile. It was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to the MIM-14 Nike Hercules, trading off the range and altitude capability for a much smaller size and weight. Its low-level performance was greatly improved over Nike through the adoption of new radars and a continuous wave semi-active radar homing guidance system. It entered service with the US Army in 1959.

In 1971 it underwent a major improvement program as the Improved Hawk, or I-Hawk, which made several improvements to the missile and replaced all of the radar systems with new models. Improvements continued throughout the next twenty years, adding improved ECCM, a potential home-on-jam feature, and in 1995, a new warhead that made it capable against short-range tactical missiles. The original system's single-shot kill probability was 0.56; I-Hawk improved this to 0.85.

Hawk was superseded by the MIM-104 Patriot in the US Army service by 1994. The last US user was the US Marine Corps, who used theirs until 2002 when they were replaced with the man-portable short-range FIM-92 Stinger. The missile was also produced outside the US in Western Europe, Japan and Iran. The US never used the Hawk in combat, but it has been employed numerous times by other nations. Approximately 40,000 of the missiles were produced.