The Armed Forces of Ukraine can receive modern HAWK XXI systems with radar from NASAMS
This week, the Spanish authorities announced the start of training for Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners. We are talking about the operators of the HAWK complex. It is likely that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not receive the HAWK Phase III, but a more modern version of the SAM.
The first HAWK systems arrived in Ukraine last year. The exact number of them was not mentioned. At the end of October, the Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine demonstrated the combat operation of the American SAM for the first time.
In the fall of 2022, Oleksiy Reznikov published a post in X, which implied that Spain intended to transfer four HAWK SAMs.
I’m grateful to my 🇪🇸 colleague Margarita Robles for the decision to send 4 Hawk air defense systems to Ukraine. It’s a quick response for 🇺🇦 request at #Ramstein 6
There are more Hawks on the way.
Today, air defense is a priority not only for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe.
🇺🇦🤝🇪🇸– Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) October 13, 2022
Meanwhile, the Spanish Ministry of Defense’s website posted information about the transfer of four launchers, not complexes.
One SAM contains six launchers, two radars and one command post.
Thus, it is far from certain that the Armed Forces received all the components of the system last year. The need to train a new group of anti-aircraft gunners is explained by the intentions of official Madrid to transfer a new batch of HAWK systems to Kyiv.
All indications are that this time the Ukrainian army will receive the HAWK XXI version of the SAM, in which obsolete radars are replaced by the AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel. This radar is a part of the NASAMS air defense system.
