TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Homing All-the-Way Killer (Hawk) launchers reportedly being transferred to Ukraine from Taiwan by the U.S. could help Kyiv replenish its diminishing stocks of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs).

On Friday (July 14), news broke that the U.S. will purchase decommissioned Phase III MIM-23 Hawk missile systems from Taiwan and ship them to Ukraine. There are approximately 100 Hawk launchers from Taiwan's stockpiles that could be shipped to Ukraine, per a Forbes report.

Ukraine has lost an estimated 60 S-300 launchers and 15 Buk launchers, while missile supplies for both have dropped substantially, with no means to manufacture replacements and allies short of supplies. This presents challenges to Ukraine as Russia still possesses a much larger arsenal of missiles, its air force remains largely intact, and it has acquired numerous attack drones from Iran, such as the Shahed-136.

At the start of the war, Ukraine had 50 Soviet-era SAM batteries, but now they all must be replaced or replenished. Thus far, NATO nations have pledged 20 batteries based on Western systems such as Patriot, NASAMS, IRIS-T, and Crotale, leaving 30 more yet to be replaced, according to Forbes.

Given that each Hawk battery is composed of six launchers, this represents about 16 additional batteries that could be added to Ukraine's arsenal. This would mean only 14 more batteries would be needed to return to pre-war levels.

Each launcher contains three medium-range missiles, an operational range of 45-50 km, a maximum flight ceiling of 20,000 m, and a top speed of Mach 2.4. The most recent version of the missile system used by Taiwan, Phase III, includes Pulse Acquisition Radar (PAR), a Continuous Wave Acquisition Radar (CWAR), a High-Power Illuminator Radar (HPIR), and a Range Only Radar (ROR), and a Low-Altitude Simultaneous Hawk Engagement (LASHE), which enables the system to simultaneously target multiple low-altitude threats, reported The Warzone.

The Hawk systems from Taiwan will reportedly join one large Hawk battery that the U.S. and Spain said would be donated to Ukraine. Since it is a system from a NATO country, Hawk is also compatible with the U.S.-Norwegian National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) ground-based air defense system, which is already on the ground in Ukraine.