Shadow Hawk Munition portends a new era of warfare

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The RQ-7 Shadow

The entire RQ-7 Tactical Unmanned Aerial System

The RQ-7 Shadow

The Lockheed Martin Shadow Hawk munition

The Lockheed Martin Shadow Hawk munition in its first public test - an effective bulls

The RQ-7 Shadow carrying the Shadow Hawk munition

Changing the oil on one of the most cost-effective weapons in history

A ground crew can prepare a launcher and ready a Shadow 200 aircraft for flight in a matter of minutes.

The hydraulic launcher mounts on a standard, high-mobility trailer.

The RQ-7

The RQ-7 can be launched by catapult

The RQ-7

Last minute checks on the RQ-7 prior to a mission

The RQ-7 adds a whole new level of capability

The hydraulic launcher for the Shadow RQ-7

The Shadow RQ-7

The Shadow RQ-7 being loaded onto a launcher

The Shadow 400 is from the same family of aircraft

The Shadow 400 can be launched and recovered from ship or land, and aircraft control can be transferred between ship- or land-based control stations

Inside the Ground Control Station, the full capabilities of the Shadow 200 come to light

The Shadow 600 is the largest of the AAI family

The RQ-7 Shadow

The RQ-7 Shadow base station

The RQ-7 Shadow

RQ-7 Shadow operators

To put the size of the Shadow Hawk air-glide armament in perspective, the RQ-7 is just 11.8 ft (3.6 m) long and has a take-off weight of just 208kg

The RQ-7 Shadow

Operating the RQ-7 Shadow

The RQ-7 Shadow is launched

The RQ-7 is appropriately kitted for each mission - you can bet that Shadow Hawks will become standard

The RQ-7 Shadow is launched

The RQ-7 Shadow

Inside an RQ-7 base station

The RQ-7 Shadow is launched

The RQ-7 Shadow 200 brochure

Article Summary

Lockheed Martin's new Shadow Hawk weapon is deceptively small considering the influence it will likely have on warfare from this point forward. The era of unmanned warfare is about to go to a whole new level. The Shadow Hawk is an 11-pound class, 2.75-inch (7 cm) diameter, 27-inch (68 cm) long drop-glide munition released a mile or more above the target by the equally diminutive unmanned RQ-7B. It may not seem like a major leap forward in weapons technology but it most certainly is, because the Shadow Hawk munition now arms an entire fleet of RQ-7s for the US Marines and Army that could previously only be used for reconnaissance, and it does so with a much smaller and cheaper weapon.

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