A blast from the past. HAWK missiles.

This is so fun! YouTube has literally movies on every conceivable topic. And I just found old propaganda videos on the missile system I operated some 25 years ago. Since I never got to shoot one of them, it's interesting to see what these suckers were capable of.

Hawk missiles

• a guided missile system developed in the 50s
• a powerful warhead consisting of 55 kg TNT and shrapnel
• 6 meters long
• achieved supersonic speed before it moved 2,5 times its own length

Data collected from memory, it might be a bit off.

As you can see, it was a powerful missile:

Fire control

My role in the battery was however with radars. Especially the "Mickey mouse"-looking one seen in this movie.

It was a real marvel of bad electronics they had tried to upgrade to somewhat more modern standards. I remember how careful we had to be with the damn thing or it would simply stop functioning. Damp weather was especially bad and required daily maintenance.

The other radar we had is not shown in the movie. It was brand new an surprisingly maintenance free.

I learned a lot from the year I spent learning and operating the system. I never got to fire a live missile, so it was kind of pointless at the time. The cost was simply too high for them to let us shoot.

NASAMS (Norwegian advanced surface to air missile system)

A few years after my service, I got the chance to learn the replacement for the old HAWK battery. It was a much lighter unit with self-guided missiles capable of multi target engagement. It even had electronics that worked. The funny thing was that i enhoyed the clumsy old hawk system. It was an art to make it work.