On my way to a football game this morning I came accross what looked like a real Hawk missile battery at G.I. Joe's Army Navy store in North Attleborough MA.

I didn't get to check the store out, but they had the Hawk battery and an old helocopter outside. It looked pretty cool so I took a few pictures.

Attached Thumbnails

           

__________________
I plan ahead that way I don't have to do anything right now.

Oh by the way, I'm not here just for the "olde" rocket discussions.

The launcher looks real but I think the Hawks are mock ups. The fins look too thin and appear to be held on by a few short welds. And there are tunnels on the sides that are missing. But they do look nice.

__________________
Bill Spadafora
http://www.billsplumbing.com
billspad@comcast.net bill@billsplumbing.com

Thanks Bill. That makes sense because up close the launcher looks old and somewhat warn while the Hawks look almost new.

It look very cool up close.

__________________
I plan ahead that way I don't have to do anything right now.

Oh by the way, I'm not here just for the "olde" rocket discussions.

Interesting! Yeah those missiles are 'mock-ups'..No tunnels or movevable control surfaces..I guess those 'launchers' were used when they first fielded the HAWK system? My first 4 yrs in the Army was in a HAWK battery, but in the 'up range' area working on the radars and control vans so hardly ever got 'up close and personal' with the missiles. Our launchers were like the one in the picture.

EDIT: Some digging and the tracked vehicle is the 'loader', not the launcher..Knew it looked vaguely familiar! 2nd picture shows the loader at the launcher..

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
Jon
SAM #0396
BAR 02/07
NAR 86940
KF4GUL
Aim high, fly straight!

For those interested here is a good page describing a HAWK battery..Plus a couple more pictures(pulled off the above page) of what I worked on- the 3 radars..Can't seem to dig up any pictures of the control vans tho..Was a 'fun' system to deploy, dragging 3" x 300 feet long cables over sand dunes!

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
Jon
SAM #0396
BAR 02/07
NAR 86940
KF4GUL
Aim high, fly straight!

Cool pics and thanks for the clarification, pics and link Jon.

I wonder how easy/difficult it was to move the missiles from the loader to the launcher. At 1,290 pounds each with a 119 pound warhead, dropping one probably wasn't a good idea.

__________________
I plan ahead that way I don't have to do anything right now.

Oh by the way, I'm not here just for the "olde" rocket discussions.

They're trainers, not actual missiles. Too bad you didn't stop and see the inside of the store. They have a Phoenix and a Little John in a display in the back of the store. I have pictures at the CMASS.org gallery under Questor. They also are trainers.

I'm definitely going back to check out the store. I locked the location into the Garmin. We were coming from a football game. The crew was very happy since they won the game, but tired and dinged up so I decided to save the store visit for another day when there's time to look around.

I really like Army Navy stores and that one looked very cool.

__________________
I plan ahead that way I don't have to do anything right now.

Oh by the way, I'm not here just for the "olde" rocket discussions.

I thought something looked fishy about the fins on those and they looked in WAY too good of shape compared to the trailer/transport.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Yeah and why do 2 of them have the same serial number?

__________________
Bob Harrington
NAR #62740 L1
AMA #46042
CMASS & RIMRA Member