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- Ukraine is operating US-made Hawk air-defense systems from the 1960s.
- Though the US retired these tools decades ago, Kyiv is now using them to kill Russian missiles.
- One Ukrainian operator recently praised the effectiveness of the antiquated system.
The Ukrainians are using an American-made air-defense system that the US retired from service more than two decades ago to successfully shoot down Russian cruise missiles.
The MIM-23 Hawk is a medium-range, surface-to-air system that was first fielded in the 1960s and has long been considered obsolete, with militaries favoring more portable systems. But the hand-me-down weapons have found new life in Ukraine, proving they are still useful tools after all these years.