The Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk is a

miniature UAV A miniature UAV, small UAV (SUAV), or drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle small enough to be man-portable. Smallest UAVs are called micro air vehicle. Miniature UAVs range from micro air vehicles (MAVs) that can be carried by an infantryman, t ...

used for base perimeter protection. It was designed by Lockheed Martin's

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the Lockheed P-38 Lightn ...

for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

Force Protection Airborne Surveillance System (FPASS) Program on a quick-reaction contract issued late in the winter of 2002, with the first system delivered in the early summer. It was designed quickly, because the program leveraged technology and design studies developed for the MicroStar MAVs. The program was run by

Electronic Systems Center The Electronic Systems Center was a product center of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) headquartered at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts. Its mission was to develop and acquire command and control, communications, computer, and intelligen ...

. In 2007, the U.S. Air Force FPASS office switched all of their UAV systems over to the

RQ-11B Raven The AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven is a small hand-launched remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle (or SUAV) developed for the United States military, but now adopted by the military forces of many other countries. The RQ-11 Raven was originally ...

. It is made mostly of plastic foam, resembling hobby grade model airplanes, and uses an electric motor driving a pusher propeller as a powerplant, making it very quiet. It is launched with a

bungee cord Bungee cords equipped with metal hooks A bungee cord (sometimes spelled bungle; also known as a shock cord) is an elastic cord composed of one or more elastic strands forming a core, usually covered in a woven cotton or polypropylene sheath. The ...

, carries three small CCD cameras, has an endurance of about an hour. It flies mostly under autonomous control, with the operator keeping track of its activity with a laptop computer. The Desert Hawk is also used by the

32nd Regiment Royal Artillery 32 Regiment Royal Artillery ("The Wessex Gunners") is a regiment in the Royal Artillery, part of the British Army and is equipped with the Lockheed Martin Desert Hawk III and PUMA 2 miniature unmanned aerial vehicles. 32nd Regiment is the only ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

as a tactical surveillance system, and has been used in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

and

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

. Desert Hawk has since been replaced with the more capable and rugged Desert Hawk III.

Specifications

* Wingspan: 52 in (1.32 m) * Length: 34 in (0.86 m) * Weight: 7 lb (3.2 kg) * Engine: electric motor driving a quiet pusher propeller * Endurance: approx. 1 hour

References

External links

Official website

Desert Hawk: Mini UAV Goes Operational
CodeOne Magazine, 2003

Military.com * , 332 AEW Public Affairs, 10/24/2003 * ,

379 AEW The 379th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Combat Command. As a provisional unit, it may be activated or inactivated at any time. The Wing is one of the largest, most diverse expeditionary win ...

Public Affairs, 7/21/2004
Desert Hawk III - Armed Forces International

Lockheed Martin Press Release 8/10/2009 Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States Desert Hawk 2000s United States military reconnaissance aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft {{USAF-stub