The Yom Kippur War raged on. The Arab Coalition heavily outnumbered Israel. Hundreds of Soviet-made aircraft rushed through the air, conducting airstrikes against Israeli batteries.

Despite facing the imposing Soviet-made MIG 17s, MIG 21s, and SU 7 fighters in the skies, Israel did not falter, thanks to the support provided by one of the latest American surface-to-air defenses: the MIM-23 Hawk, also known as the Homing All the Way Killer missile system.

This state-of-the-art mobile system, armed with three lethal missiles carrying 120 pounds of explosive warheads and flying at speeds of Mach 2.4, was not your ordinary SAM. It was armed with the latest radars, electronic counter-countermeasures, and home-on-jam features.

Simply put, once the Hawk sighted a target, there was no way to escape its missile. By the end of the day, the carcasses of over a dozen enemy Soviet fighters decorated the land around an Israeli Hawk battery.


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