Lesson plan

Constant Hawk

Constant Hawk is a United States Army wide-area motion imagery system flown on crewed reconnaissance aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan. Constant Hawk was the first airborne Wide Area Persistent Sensor developed and deployed by the United States. It flew over 66 thousand flight hours in Iraq on five aircraft and is directly and indirectly credited with producing the intelligence data that dramatically reduced IED production and deployment. Like similar wide-area surveillance systems, such as Gorgon Stare, ARGUS-IS or the aerostat-mounted Kestrel, Constant Hawk was designed to give operators a fuller view of an area (such as a battlefield or operating base) than they would normally get from standard full-motion video cameras. The Army first deployed Constant Hawk in 2006 as part of a Quick Reaction Capability to help combat enemy ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan and Iraq. Constant Hawk flew on Short 360-300s in Iraq under the command of Task Force ODIN. The system was introduced to Afghanistan in 2009, where it is still in use aboard MC-12W Liberty aircraft.

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Article summary

Constant Hawk is a United States Army wide-area motion imagery system flown on crewed reconnaissance aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan. Constant Hawk was the first airborne Wide Area Persistent Sensor developed and deployed by the United States. It flew over 66 thousand flight hours in Iraq on five aircraft and is directly and indirectly credited with producing the intelligence data that dramatically reduced IED production and deployment. Like similar wide-area surveillance systems, such as Gorgon Stare, ARGUS-IS or the aerostat-mounted Kestrel, Constant Hawk was designed to give operators a fuller view of an area (such as a battlefield or operating base) than they would normally get from standard full-motion video cameras. The Army first deployed Constant Hawk in 2006 as part of a Quick Reaction Capability to help combat enemy ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan and Iraq. Constant Hawk flew on Short 360-300s in Iraq under the command of Task Force ODIN. The system was introduced to Afghanistan in 2009, where it is still in use aboard MC-12W Liberty aircraft.

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  1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
  2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
  3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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