HAWK AIR DEFENCE EQUIPMENT

1.Context

2.Introduction

• The HAWK interceptor missiles would be an upgrade to the Stinger missile systems- a smaller, short-range air defense system that the United States has already sent to blunt Russia's invasion.
• The US sent the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft stingers to Ukraine early on in the war, and then placed orders for more stocks of the missiles with Raytheon Technologies Corp. After they demonstrated great success in stopping Russian air assaults.

3.HAWK Air Defence System

• HAWK, short for 'Homing All the Way Killer', entered service with the US Army in 1959, during the Vietnam war.
• It is an American medium-range surface-to-air-missile.
• It underwent upgrades over the decades that followed, 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.
• HAWK was superseded by the MIM-104 patriot in US Army service by 1994.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, bur it has been employed numerous times bt other nations.

4.Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA)

• According to the US Department of state, PDA allows for the "speedy delivery of defence articles and services from Department of Defence stocks to foreign countries and international organisations to respond to unforeseen emergencies.
• Military assistance under PDA does not require Congressional approval, and could "begin arriving within days-or even hours-of approval".
• Following the waves of ariel attacks that targeted civilians and knocked out vital infrastructure in Ukraine earlier this month, President Joe Biden pledged to president Volodomyr Zelenskyy that the US would provide his country with advanced air systems.
• The US has provided almost $17 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine since the launch of Russia's Invasion.