![]() The original Hawk system had problems engaging targets at low altitude-the missile would have problems picking the target out against ground clutter. Later Hawk versions improved this further to between 300 and 400 hours. The improved Hawk system increased this to between 130 and 170 hours. The high complexity of the system, and the quality of tube-based electronics, gave the radars in the early Hawk systems a mean time between failures (MTBF) of only 43 hours. The missile was initially deployed by the US Army in 1959, and by the US Marine Corps in 1960. The problems were resolved with the adoption of the M22E8 engine. Very early missiles used the Aerojet M22E7 which was not reliable. The first test launch of the missile then designated the XSAM-A-18 happened in June 1956.īy July 1957 development was completed, by which time the designation had changed to XM3 and XM3E1. In July 1954 development contracts were awarded to Northrop for the launcher, radars and fire control systems, while Raytheon was awarded the contract for the missile. The original iteration of the missile, MIM-23A later known as the Basic Hawk.ĭevelopment of the Hawk missile system began in 1952, when the United States Army began studies into a medium-range semi-active radar homing surface-to-air missile. Approximately 40,000 of the missiles were produced. The US never used the Hawk in combat, but it has been employed numerous times by other nations. The missile was also produced outside the US in Western Europe, Japan and Iran. 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. Hawk was superseded by the MIM-104 Patriot in US Army service by 1994. Jane's reported that the original system's single shot kill probability was 0.56 I-Hawk improved this to 0.85. 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. 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. It entered service with the US Army in 1959. 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 was designed to be a much more mobile counterpart to the MIM-14 Nike Hercules, trading off range and altitude capability for a much smaller size and weight. The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK ("Homing all the way killer") is an American medium-range surface-to-air missile.
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