The HAWK HIPIR Radar

This is the HAWK radar unit that I maintained in Korea --

Great resemblance to the actual radar unit.

On the HIPIR radar getting ready to hook it up to another Chinook, demonstrating air-mobile exercises in 1974 --

DCS Hawk SAM confirmed.... Very cool mate how long did it take to get a hang of the system??

Hey, Fraser,

I went to school at Ft. Bliss for about 8 months (1973), for the basic and advanced classes. I was very familiar with the HIPIR radar (High Power Illuminator Radar) and knew my way around the HAWK system. My roommate was a Pulse Acquisition Radar mechanic - that's the one with the big rotating wire cage (we would sit in the center of the antenna and spin around). Then to Korea for a year, overlooking the DMZ up near Camp Red Cloud. That was an experience to be there in Korea, in the Land Of The Frozen Chosen, and to work on the radars (also the CWAR). Rain and shine, snow and wind, you had to be right out there - we did have canvas covers to snap over the ends so we could work on the electronics under a bit of shelter. In those days the electronics were full of mini-tubes, with 250 VDC plates; went across 440 VAC while working in the fuse panel, and almost took off my sergeant's head with the wrench in my hand. I remember kicking a waveguide stub when I couldn't tune the frequency and the darn thing broke right off, I quickly discerned that the stub *must* have been cracked, and the replacement fixed the problem. One day some wet-behind-the-ears LT took over the radar controls without asking in the Battery Command Central and swung the antenna around and almost took my legs off at the thighs - I chewed him out I was sooo angry, and me a Spec 4. We did air mobile exercises in Korea, and I would hook up the radars to Chinook helicopters; one Chinook came down too fast and crushed the top of one of the HIPIR's Micky Mouse ears - I stopped doing the hookups after that. One Chinook dropped a Missile Loader and it landed in a rice paddy and we brought it back to the compound and it was about 12 inches high after its crash landing. Another Chinook had a rack of HAWK missiles that slipped in the sling such that the missiles were pointing straight up at the helicopter and the missile noses were about 6 inches from the bottom of the bird - the pilots did not know if the missiles would explode if they dropped them so they kept flying with them like that - the crew chief was pushing a broom out the hatch at the missiles to keep them from spinning. My sergeant would hook up the last jeep and climb up the rigging into the helicopter and off we went. Our battery went to go to the range to shoot, and a Nike-Hercules missile launched and blew up about 100' off the launcher and chunks went all over and about 400 lbs almost hit the mess hall.

After Korea I went back to Ft. Bliss and taught the radar for a year before 'retiring'.

In the first screenshot, there is a module up on the top of the modern radar between the Micky Mouse ears. That, AFAIK, is a video camera that is used to search for targets without emitting detectable RF energy. One ear transmits and the other receives.

It was in Korea that I was in the HAWK Battery B 2/71st and we called ourselves "The Wrecking Crew".

Those were the days :) That is the radar, I'm the smart a$$ in the middle -- our Captain took this picture after we landed our battery --

Well, based on the interesting read you provided, it appears Chinooks were more efficient in wrecking. :)

Man that was a great read. Thank you for that.