Forest Green
ACCESS: USAP
- Joined
- 11 June 2019
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I never for one second believed the original production rate promises but 6/week is still >300/year and they're verifiably hitting their mark.We shall see. Previous claims about Ukraine ballistic missiles over promised on delivery schedule and capabilities, as did the FP-5. And of course what matters as much or more is production capacity - for all the hype of FP-5, we see them used only a half dozen at a time once a week at most, after a long period of supposed steady manufacture.
How many HAWK air defense systems does Ukraine actually have? And can they hit Russia’s ballistic missiles?
Ukraine has roughly 1% of the Patriot interceptors it needs heading into winter, so it's leaning on a missile system the U.S. Army retired in 1996: the MIM-23 HAWK. I break down what HAWK can and can't actually intercept, why nobody can confirm exactly how many the U.S., Spain, and other allies have actually delivered, and how an air-defense missile from the Eisenhower era became the thing keeping scarce Patriot interceptors in reserve for the threats only Patriot can stop.
Chapters:
00:00 - Patriot shortage prompts look at Hawk
01:15 - Wes introduces Hawk amid interceptor shortage
01:37 - Why Hawk must shoulder Patriot’s workload
02:12 - Ukraine’s interceptor deficit and Hawk’s challenge
03:08 - Active shortage and Hawk’s post‑US era
04:32 - Reviving Hawk and the allied patchwork
06:35 - Hawk’s ballistic capability and radar dependence
08:11 - Layered defense and Hawk’s role
09:28 - Hawk as key to preserving Patriot through winter
09:39 - Sustainment challenges reviving Hawk
10:55 - Air defense overview and allied Hawk influx
12:45 - Allied Hawk shipments: advocacy and uncertainty
14:27 - Time as critical factor in Ukraine’s air defenseVideo Sources: DOD and National Archives
#Ukraine #MilitaryTechnology #UkraineWar #Infrastructure #MilitaryHistory #geopolitics #PatriotMissile #AirDefense #russiaukrainewar
I'm honestly not impressed with US ballistic missile production rates, I dont doubt Ukraine could outproduce us in the short term considering all the bureaucracy and price gouging from our defence companies.Sounds ridiuclously ambitious. It would put FP-9 production on a par with US PrSM production targets.
I dont doubt Ukraine could outproduce us in the short term considering all the bureaucracy andprice gougingprofiteering from our defence companies.
Called it.One thing that also springs to mind is how similar in size the FP-7 is to the French Hades from the early '90s (same diameter of 0.53m and only slightly shorter at 7.25m vs 7.5m). The Hades made 480km with a warhead that weighed 200kg, the FP-7 has a 150kg warhead. Is 300km underselling it?
Would be pleasantly surprised if this is true that image from Suchomimus's youtube video does look narrower than the FP-5 which would point to FP-7. Are you still sure it was FP-7?FP-7 (150kg warhead) has made its combat debut (on Moscow) with the FP-9 (800kg warhead) coming shortly.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8LDT3Nn_uU
Called it.
View: https://x.com/UKikaski/status/2101654401660141857?s=20
This missile was stated to only have a range of 200-300km but it turns out to be 500+km and it costs ~$500k.