First disclosed in 2019 and revealed to the public in September 2020, the Sparrowhawk is intended to offer the United States Air Force a Small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) capable of SIGINT/ELINT, ISR, radar imaging, jamming and the possibility for future roles.
[1][2] The Sparrowhawk is derived from the General Atomic's submission to the DARPA Gremlins program, which aimed at developing small UAVs that could be deployed and recovered midair by a mothership aircraft.
[6] The first aerial tests regarding the Sparrowhawk were conducted on September 16 and 17, 2020, using Area-I Altius-600 UAVs on board an MQ-1C Gray Eagle.
The prototype was notably missing its ducted fans, but did maintain most features shown in digital models of the aircraft.
[7] In a press release, a video showed that the Sparrowhawk prototype has demonstrated the ability to perform the catch maneuver when controlled by a robotic arm.
General Atomics also demonstrated the reeling mechanism on a manned aircraft with a small mockup similar in size to the Sparrowhawk.