Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Communications and Power Industries has been awarded $24.8 million to provide Klystron Tube spares for the MIM-23 Homing All the Way Killer surface-to-air missile launcher.
The contract, announced Thursday by the Department of Defense, includes foreign military sales to Bahrain, Egypt, Japan, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates and is expected to conclude by November 2023.
The MIM-23 Hawk is a medium-range radar-guided surface-to-air missile that has been in use in various forms since 1960. Depending on the variant, it has a range of over 30 miles and can engage targets up to 65,000 feet.
The Hawk has been phased out of U.S. service in favor of the much longer ranged Patriot surface-to-air missile, but has been exported across much of the world and has been produced under license in other countries.
The missile is showing its age, with Klystron Tubes being a type of vacuum tube technology that is obsolete by today's digital standards. It is still effective against most fighters and helicopters but suffers from a relatively short range compared to modern radar guided surface-to-air missiles.