MIM-23 Hawk

The Raytheon MIM-23 HAWK (HAWK is the somewhat unimaginative acronym for homing all the way killer) missile is a surface to air missile. It has been designed to destroy both aircraft and other missiles in flight. It has two ponderous distinctions. One being the oldest missile still in service in the US military (over 30 years), and the other being that it has never been fired by US troops in anger.

The missile system has undergone substantial improvement since its inception in 1962. However, only the United States Marine Corps still uses the system. A rough chronology of which follows:

HAWK Chronology

The Sixties

• The Cuban missile crisis necessitates a request for a total of 304 missiles to be delivered at an average turnaround of 3 days per missile.

• The missile is subsequently submitted for an "improvement" project, the Improved HAWK.

• Raytheon is asked to provide a self-propelled HAWK firing unit, the HAWK Assault Fire Unit.

• The Marine Corps gets interested in the HAWK, placing them at Da Nang and Hill 327, which was west of Da Nang airbase. This was both the first USMC deployment of the HAWK, and also the first deployment of the HAWK in Viet Nam.

• A HAWK battalion is deployed to Israel.

• Raytheon is awarded a contract to "improve" the HAWK. The improvements are subsequently approved, and the first improved HAWK (or SP HAWK) is delivered in February 1967.

• Israel successfully used the HAWK to down Egyptian jets during the Six Day War.
  

  The Seventies

• All activity on the SP HAWK is terminated in favor of the Improved HAWK.

• Improved HAWK systems are deployed in Germany.

• 24 batteries of Improved HAWK missiles are sold to Iran for $280 million.

• The 1st and 7th Air Defense Artillery (ADA) Battalions are activated at Fort Bliss, Texas.

• Both HAWK and PATRIOT missile systems are tested at White Sands Missile Range in a severe countermeasures environment. Both PATRIOT and HAWK (although the latter at a lower altitude) systems performed adequately.

• Following the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the US Department of State formally suspended the Iranian HAWK program. No further communication occurred between the US and the Iranian Air Force on the missile system.
  

  The Eighties

• The decision was made by the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army to retain the HAWK indefinitely.

• Experiments combining the Sparrow missile with the HAWK are conducted.

• The Office of the Secretary of Defense approved the development of an anti-tactical-missile mission for the HAWK.

• HAWK demonstrated its capability to receive and use PATRIOT acquisition data to engage a short-range ballistic missile. A PATRIOT test target programmed to fly a trajectory characteristic of a Soviet short-range tactical ballistic missile (TBM) was intercepted and destroyed at WSMR. To add the ATM capability to the HAWK on a permanent basis, an effort requiring primarily software changes was under way.
  

  The Nineties

• The USMC successfully demonstrated the HAWK Get Light concept at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The purpose of the Get Light program was to minimize the amount of equipment needed to fire a HAWK missile and to use data from the HAWK Continuous Wave Acquisition Radar (CWAR) to cue Short Range Air Defense Systems (SHORADs) such as STINGER.

• An engineering change proposal (ECP) approved this year gave the HAWK missile an improved Short Range Anti-Tactical Ballistic Missile (SRATBM) capability.

• The 11th Brigade at Fort Bliss requested that modifications be made to HAWK equipment so that it could be used by the Army to support the Drug Enforcement Agency in its drug interdiction efforts. The first radar was modified and tested at WSMR in September 92.

• A SAFE AIR demonstration was conducted at WSMR to display the effectiveness and versatility of several existing and new U.S. Army weapon systems in providing air and surface defense. Emphasis was placed on defeating cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The HAWK system successfully engaged two surrogate cruise missiles, one UAV, and one fixed wing drone.

• Northrop developed a secondary imagery dissemination system called "Point View," which it made available to the 11th Brigade for its role in drug interdiction exercises. This system allowed the transmission of Video Tracking Group (VTG) imagery and textual reports gathered by field units to the headquarters or other batteries. This system consisted of low cost, commercially available hardware and existing communication links.

• The 2nd and 1st ADA Battalions at Fort Bliss deactivated in April of 1994. This left only Air National Guard and USMC deployments, as well as deployments in 20 foreign countries.

• The USMC successfully tested its HAWK Mobility and theater missile defense (TMD) software upgrades at WSMR. HAWK acquired the three LANCE targets, two of which were successfully engaged and destroyed. This was the first time the entire USMC ATBM system had been tested.

• In 1997, both the New Mexico and Ohio ARNG ADA Battalions deactivated.