Desert Hawk gives security forces an eye in sky

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. C. Todd Lopez
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  Airmen at one forward-deployed location who routinely work, eat, run errands and sleep may not think to look up in the sky. But if they did, they would see something looking right back at them.

Flying at about 300 feet above the ground is a small foam aircraft with a built-in video camera. It is not there to spy on Airmen. Instead, it is on its way to the perimeter of the installation, where it will fly about looking for suspicious activity. The Desert Hawk serves as an eye in the sky for the force protectors.

"We fly the Desert Hawk at different times of the month, depending on what's occurring in the local area," said Senior Master Sgt. Nicholas Liberti, the security forces operations superintendent. "Desert Hawk is part of the force protection airborne surveillance system and is a force-protection multiplier for the installation.

Sergeant Liberti said Desert Hawk offers a layer of defense providing early warning and detection.

Physically, the Desert Hawk is not a big aircraft. It has a wingspan of about 52 inches, is less than 3 feet long and weighs around 7 pounds. Although small, its mission is pretty big.

Sergeant Liberti said Desert Hawk gives security forces a better chance of protecting man-portable air defense systems.

"That's what this aircraft is designed to do, control the Manpads threat," said the sergeant.

They are fairly easy-to-obtain, shoulder-launched weapon systems that can destroy or damage U.S. and coalition aircraft. Essentially, Desert Hawk is keeping an eye out for bad guys armed with the launchers.

Should the Desert Hawk see such a threat, local security forces respond with the right level of force.

If the Desert Hawk flies over something, we can spot it at that moment and then dispatch people to assess the situation, Sergeant Liberti said.

The surveillance system program is run entirely by enlisted Airmen. Maintaining, launching, recovering and flying the aircraft are handled by specially trained security forces volunteers. While program team members are still regular security forces Airmen, their program is a departure the normal flight duties, said Staff Sgt. Nancy Gonzalez, the program leader.

Sergeant Gonzalez has about 17 Desert Hawk flights under her belt. She said her favorite part of the job is putting the aircraft in the air.

"I think the launching and landing of the plane is the best part," she said. "You hook it up to a bungee cord, stretch it out and let it go."

Sergeant Gonzalez said, it takes two Airmen to launch the Desert Hawk -- a pilot and a co-pilot. The pilot holds the aircraft about five feet off the ground. The co-pilot attaches the end of a bungee cord to the plane and then walks away, stretching the cord tight and charging it with just the right amount of potential energy to launch the tiny plane into the air. The co-pilot wears a vest and helmet just in case the plane should launch into his or her chest instead of climb skyward.

The plane does not start out with the engine running. That does not happen until after it is shot into the air.

"After we launch, and it goes over 50 feet per second, the motor engages," Sergeant Gonzalez said. "After that, it flies itself on the path you have programmed."

The plane's battery power and tiny propeller can keep it in the air for about 60 minutes, she said.

Its main body is made of high-density foam and costs about $300. If its frame gets damaged, Sergeant Gonzalez or her team does the repair.

"They do their own work on the bird if it breaks," Sergeant Liberti said. "They put the pieces back together and use glue or tape -- whatever it takes to keep it flying. They do all the maintenance."

They do not repair the mechanics of the plane. It is the plane’s inner workings -- the cameras, computers, motors and mechanical parts -- that bring its cost to about $30,000. Sergeant Gonzalez said problems with the inner workings of the craft are repaired by the manufacturer.

The Desert Hawk sees a lot in the sky both during the day and at night. In fact, there are two models of the plane. The first is equipped with a small digital camera that looks similar to what computer users may have on top of their monitor. The camera transmits images via radio wave back to the ground control station. There, Sergeant Gonzalez and her co-pilot can watch the images on a small video screen and record them to videotape. Another Desert Hawk model is equipped with an infrared camera. Like a security forces Airman with a set of night-vision goggles, the nighttime Desert Hawk can see in the dark.

"The plane provides real-time footage, day or night, of the exterior of the base," Sergeant Gonzalez said.

It has many of the same features as a larger aircraft. It has wings and flaps. It has a tail, motor and propeller. What it does not have is a "stick" in the cockpit, or even a cockpit. Aircraft control comes from a portable ground-control station. Instead of flying with manual inputs by a pilot, the Desert Hawk flies a predetermined route programmed in to its onboard control system with the aid of a laptop computer.

"You program a flight into the computer, indicating where you want it to go," Sergeant Gonzalez said.

Using an onboard Global Positioning System receiver, the Desert Hawk can keep itself on the course Sergeant Gonzalez programmed it to fly. That means that the operator on the ground is not really telling the craft where to go once it is in the air. But that does not mean she could not reprogram it in mid-flight. In fact, being able to do so is critical to the Desert Hawk mission.

"I don't steer the plane," Sergeant Gonzalez said. "But if I see something suspicious I can program it to go elsewhere. I can also have it hover overhead and move the camera to view."

Landing the Desert Hawk is a bit different than landing a regular airplane, because it has no wheels. Instead of coming in for a traditional landing, it comes in for what amounts to a controlled crash. Sergeant Gonzalez must ensure the wind, terrain and angle of decent are all correct, and she may have to do several passes before the plane can be brought home safely. Still, should the craft come down hard, it is tough.

"It has Kevlar protection on it," Sergeant Liberti said. "But when it quits flying, it falls like a rock."

The Desert Hawk is not as expensive or as sophisticated as its bigger siblings, the Global Hawk or the Predator. It can not fly as far or deliver munitions. But its mission is as important to ground-based security forces in deployed locations as bigger craft are to the Air Force.

"This is nothing on the grand scale of the other (unmanned aerial vehicles)" Sergeant Liberti said. "Still, this is an extremely important program. It is another layer of security on the base. It is a deterrent. It is another set of eyes that can detect potential hostile activity."