[11] All aircraft in the game are equipped with guns, a large supply of the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) heat-seekers[12] and a handful of flares.

The game is set above the skies of a near-future world, which is increasingly dependent on private military companies with elite mercenaries, who have a relaxed view of the law.

The game begins in 2014 with Crenshaw providing air support for the Ghost Recon team carrying out covert operations in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.

After the mission, the Air Force deactivates the H.A.W.X program and Crenshaw is recruited into Artemis Global Security, a private military corporation.

Over the next six years, Crenshaw and his squadron fly missions for Artemis and its clients, such as defending valuable facilities and attacking insurgent bases.

In the wake of the conflict, the United States sends its forces to intervene, thereby subverting Artemis' role and causing its stock to drop.

In response, Artemis takes up a profitable contract with Las Trinidad and launches a surprise attack on the United States Navy carrier strike group in the Strait of Magellan.

After the battle, the U.S. sends Crenshaw and an Air Force bomber squadron on a retaliatory mission to bomb the Artemis Operations Center in the Caribbean Sea.

However, Artemis knocks out the U.S. communications and intelligence satellites and launches a massive preemptive invasion of the United States, capturing numerous major U.S. cities and military bases.

As the U.S. gains the upper hand with the help of Japan and NATO, Artemis, which had acquired several tactical nuclear weapons, issues an ultimatum to the President: surrender in 24 hours or watch the U.S. be destroyed.

In response, the United Nations forces all PMCs to disarm and either take on small scale support and logistical roles or be terminated.

[19] Prior to this, Ubisoft issued a press release about the game under its working title Tom Clancy's Air Combat.

The H.A.W.X development team worked closely with GeoEye so that satellite images could be used in the game's nineteen-level environment; "High-resolution satellite imaging is moving from the black world of intelligence to the white world of commerce, and Tom Clancy's HAWX will bring that reality to gamers", said GeoEye VP, Mark Brender.

The satellite mapping has been largely praised due to its increased authenticity, although it has also been criticized as pixelation becomes very obvious during low-level flying.