Missiles
| Type of Missile | Entered service |
Tactical model |
Training and Evaluation model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype | 1957 | XM3 (XMIM-23A) |
n/a |
| Basic Hawk | 1959 | (M3) MIM-23A |
XM16/18 (XMTM-23B/C) |
| Basic I-Hawk | 1971 to 1978 |
MIM-23B | XMEM-23B |
| Improved ECCM | 1982 | MIM-23C/D | MEM-23C |
| Low-level/ multi-jamming |
1990 | MIM-23E/F | MEM-23D |
| New body section |
early 1990s |
MIM-23G/H | MEM-23E |
| New warhead and fuzing (anti-TBM) |
1995 | MIM-23K/J | MEM-23F |
| New fuzing only, old warhead |
1995 | MIM-23L/M |
The Hawk missile has a slender cylindrical body and four long chord clipped delta-wings, extending from mid-body to the slightly tapered boat-tail. Each wing has a trailing-edge control surface.
- The MIM-23A is 5.08 metres (16.7 ft) long, has a body diameter of 0.37 metres (1 ft 3 in), a wing span of 1.21 metres (4 ft 0 in) and weighs 584 kilograms (1,290 lb) at launch with a 54 kilograms (120 lb) HE blast/fragmentation warhead. It has a minimum engagement range of 2 kilometres (1.2 mi), a maximum range of 25 kilometres (16 mi), a minimum engagement altitude of 60 metres (200 ft) and a maximum engagement altitude of 11,000 metres (36,000 ft).
- The MIM-23B to M versions are 5.03 m (16.5 ft) long, have a body diameter of 0.37 m (1 ft 3 in) and, with a larger warhead of 75 kg (11 lb), weighing 638 kg (1,410 lb) at launch. An improved motor, with a total weight of 395 kg (870 lb) including 295 kg (650 lb) of propellant, increases the maximum range of the MIM-23B to M versions to 35 km (22 mi) and maximum engagement altitude to 18,000 m (59,000 ft). The minimum range is reduced to 1.5 km (0.93 mi). The MIM-23B has a peak velocity of around 500 m/s (1,600 ft/s). The missile is fitted with both radio frequency proximity and impact fuses. The guidance system uses an X-band CW monopulse semi-active radar seeker. The missile can maneuver at 15 g.
In the 1970s, NASA used surplus Hawk missiles to create the Nike Hawk sounding rocket.
Read more about this topic: MIM-23 Hawk
Famous quotes containing the word missiles:
“Our missiles always make too short an arc:
They fall, they rip the grass, they intersect
The curve of earth, and striking, break their own;”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“At the rate science proceeds, rockets and missiles will one day seem like buffalo—slow, endangered grazers in the black pasture of outer space.”
—Bernard Cooper (b. 1936)