Science and Technology
In news: The United States is considering retrieving older HAWK air defence equipment from storage to send to Ukraine which is facing a heavy barrage of Russian drone-fired and cruise missiles.
- The US sent the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft Stingers to Ukraine and they demonstrated great success in stopping Russian air assaults.
- The US has provided almost $17 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine since the launch of Russia’s invasion.
HAWK missile system:
- The Stinger missile system is a smaller, shorter-range air defence system.
- The HAWK interceptor missiles would be an upgrade to the Stinger missile system.
- HAWK, short for ‘Homing All the Way Killer’, entered service with the US Army in 1959, during the Vietnam war.
- It underwent upgrades over the decades that followed, including a major one in 1971 that produced the so-called I-HAWK (or improved HAWK), with a kill probability of 85%.
- The HAWK system was the predecessor to the PATRIOT missile defence system that Raytheon built in the 1990s. US forces largely stopped using HAWK from the early years of the new century.
- The Biden administration would use the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) to transfer the HAWK equipment.
- PDA allows for the speedy delivery of defence articles and services from Department of Defence stocks to foreign countries and international organisations to respond to unforeseen emergencies.
- Military assistance under PDA does not require Congressional approval, and could begin arriving within days or even hours of approval.
Source: Indian Express
Previous Year Question
Q.1) What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news? (2018)
- An Israeli radar system
- India’s indigenous anti-missile programme
- An American anti-missile system
- A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea.
