BAE Systems Phoenix

The Phoenix, originally the GEC-Marconi Phoenix, was a British battlefield surveillance unmanned aerial vehicle used by the Royal Artillery, the third generation of British Army UAV after the SD/1 and the Canadair Midge. It was a twin-boom tractor aircraft made of Kevlar and other plastics, powered by a 20 kW piston engine, with an infrared imager in a pod slung under the fuselage that sent pictures to a ground control station. It launched from a rail on the back of a truck and was recovered by parachute, landing on its back on a crushable hump. First flown in 1986, it suffered long delays and entered service only in 1999. It served in Kosovo and in Iraq during Operation Telic, where losses were high but artillery spotting results were praised. Its last operational sortie was in May 2006 and it was formally retired on 20 March 2008, replaced by the Watchkeeper programme.