UPDATE: Lockheed Martin Awarded Desert Hawk 3 Contract from U.K. Ministry of Defence

The U.K. Ministry of Defence has awarded Lockheed Martin

a contract to support the Desert Hawk 3 programme and establish the small unmanned aerial system (UAS) as a Core Defence Capability. "Desert Hawk has served the U.K. military well in providing intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance to tactical warfighters," said Jay McConville, Lockheed Martin director of business development for Unmanned Solutions. "We look forward to continuing this record of success through the award of the Desert Hawk Core Support Programme, and we continue to enhance its capabilities based on user feedback. Desert Hawk's maturity and proven performance, as well as the enhanced capabilities now available, make it a crucial asset on the modern battlefield." Desert Hawk 3 has flown more than 30,000 hours, mostly under austere conditions, to support critical mission needs such as enhanced situational awareness, security and counter-IED operations, threat detection, route reconnaissance and battle damage assessment. Defence Minister Philip Dunne said: "Desert Hawk has proved its worth on operations in Afghanistan, providing our Armed Forces with vital intelligence and allowing our commanders to stay one step ahead of the