Launch, intercept, destroy-land-based air defence.
Armada International › Vol. 26 Nbr. 4, August 2002
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Launch, intercept, destroy-land-based air defence.
The effective defence of both fixed and mobile ground targets against the threats posed by missiles and aircraft favours a multi-layered approach. The need for improvements in medium- and long-range interception capability is emphasised by the growing use of stand-off radar platforms and jamming aircraft, stealth bombers, and by the abandoning of direct attacks by manned aircraft in favour of stand-off, cruise and ballistic missiles.
For the purposes of the following discussion, it is understood that Shorads (short-range air defence systems, discussed in Armada 2/2002) typically engage incoming aircraft and missiles at around ten kilometres, although some may stretch to 20 km. It is also given that long-range air defence systems are capable of more than 75 km, and that medium-range systems fill the gap, intercepting at 20 to 75 km. Hawk The classic Western medium-range Sam is the Raytheon MIM-23B Hawk (Homing All-the-Way Killer), which is believed to have a maximum range in the region of 40 km. The Hawk is widely used, serving with the US Army and Marine Corps and the services of 20 other nations, including seven members of Nato. The Hawk is a semi-active radar homing missile launched from a wheeled trailer. The standard US Marine Corps battery or US Army platoon has four three-round launchers. Either unit can fire its missiles at an average interval of less than five seconds, but in its initial form can engage only two targets simultaneously. The basic Hawk system employs four different radars. Search is conducted by a pulse acquisition radar (Par) in the case of medium or high altitude targets, and a continuous-wave acquisition radar (Cwar) for low-flying targets. If either of these is subjected to jamming that denies target range information, it can be supported by a range-only radar. The designated targets are tracked and illuminated by a high-power illuminator (HPI) radar. The Hawk entered service in 1960, and has been used operationally in the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, and the Iran-Iraq war. The US Marine Corps deployed two Hawk battalions in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The Hawk has gone through a series of major upgrades. The Phase I upgrade that began in 1977 brought improvements to the Par and Cwar. The Phase II of 1983 introduced a series of R&M (reliability and maintainability) improvements, wit...See the full content of this document
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