Leonardo Falco

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) [ 2009 ]

The Italian Galileo FALCO UAV can be now be purchased as armed or unarmed depending on mission requirements.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 01/19/2023 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

Image from official Leonardo marketing material.

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]

Advertisements

The SELEX Galileo Falco (meaning "Falcon") is another addition to the ever-growing list of modern Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) intended for military use. First flight of the Falco occurred in December of 2003 and, after additional testing and clearances, the Flaco was formally offered up for the market in 2009. To date, some 50 aircraft have been produced with the first (and only known) customer being Pakistan. The Pakistani military procured some two dozen Falcos since the UAVs inception and has fielded them operationally in activities centering on the Swat Valley. The Flaco is described as a "medium-class" UAV and, in its original base form, is intended solely for reconnaissance and surveillance - therefore not being armed in the same way as the American Predator or Reaper series. The series' main strengths are endurance and performance at altitude, allowing ground commanders a relatively inexpensive and lower risk "eye in the sky" when compared to the use of larger helicopters or aircraft in the same role. The Falco was originally managed by Galileo Avionica which has since formed with SELEX S&AS to come "SELEX Galileo". Before the Falco, SELEX provided high-end electronics and imaging systems to various defense parties. SELEX itself is the child of parent industrial powerhouse company Finmeccanica, founded in 1948 out of Rome.

Outwardly, the Falco mimics the clean streamlined profile of a high-end civilian sports aircraft. The fuselage is well-contoured and aerodynamically refined, sporting high-mounted monoplane wings that are straight in their design and slightly cranked downwards at near-mid span. From the wings emerge thin twin tail booms that mount the vertical tail fins and these are further joined at their base by a horizontal plane. The engine is housed within the aft fuselage and powers a three-bladed propeller assembly in a "pusher" arrangement. The undercarriage is fixed and consists of three landing gear legs, each sporting a single, shrouded wheel. Payloads are managed along the underbelly and can be varied according to operator needs (NBC sensor equipment, electronic countermeasures, thermal imaging, TV, radar, laser designators). Avionics are housed in the nose assembly. Power to the aircraft is supplied by an 80 horsepower engine allowing for top speeds of approximately 135 miles per hour with a service ceiling of 16,500 feet and operational range equal to 14 hours. The Falco is not a small machine by any regard and promotes a running length of 17 feet with a wingspan equal to 24 feet. When at rest, the Falco tops 6 feet in height requiring several hands to set her into place. The UAV can take off under its own power from a completed runway but has also since been tested with a pneumatic catapult launcher for improved in-the-field capabilities. It is assumed that the UAV can be recovered through some sort of erected netting system as well.

As with other UAVs, the Falco is just one component of a complete UAV package offered by its host company. The suite includes the UAV aircraft itself (or several as needed), the Ground Control Station (GCS) and all applicable supporting equipment including the pilot station and mission screens. Information is relayed to the GCS in real-time and full-color, allowing commanders to make quick decisions on-the-fly. Such UAVs as the Falco also hold an advantage in their relatively quiet performance and small profile, often times going unnoticed near concentrations of enemy personnel - as proven by American UAVs in Iraq and Afghanistan. A later development effort has brought about the "Falco EVO" which intends to allow the fielding of guided munitions (2 x missiles underwing), extensively broadening the mission scope of this new Italian UAV. The Falco EVO will be dimensionally larger and perhaps more powerful to compensate for the revised battlefield role.©MilitaryFactory.com

Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.

May 2013 - It was announced that the Italian government has moved to procure the American RQ-7 Shadow UAV series due to critical operational requirements in the Afghanistan Theater. This serves as something of a blow to the Galileo UAV program and Italian defense industry as a whole where government contracts were historically guaranteed to Italian defense firms.

June 2019 - The third iteration of the Falco family of UAVs was unveiled at Paris Air Show 2019. This variant is knwon as the Falco Xplorer.

Specifications

Service Year

2009

Origin

Italy

Status

ACTIVE
In Limited Service.

Crew

0
UNMANNED

Production

50
UNITS

Leonardo-Finmeccanica (SELEX Galileo) - Italy

(View other Aviaton-Related Manufacturers)

National flag of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Bangladesh; Pakistan; Saudi Arabia; Turkmenistan; United Nations

(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)

✓ Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance (ISR), Scout
Surveil ground targets / target areas to assess environmental threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.

✓ Unmanned Capability
Aircraft inherently designed (or later developed) with an unmanned capability to cover a variety of over-battlefield roles.

Length

17.2 ft
(5.25 m)

Width/Span

23.6 ft
(7.20 m)

Height

5.9 ft
(1.80 m)

MTOW

926 lb
(420 kg)

(Showcased structural values pertain to the base Leonardo Falco production variant)

Installed: 1 x Gasoline-fueled engine developing 65 to 80 horsepower.

Max Speed

134 mph
(216 kph | 117 kts)

Ceiling

21,325 ft
(6,500 m | 4 mi)

♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the base Leonardo Falco production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)

Usually none though two underwing hardpoints for guided munitions available with Falco EVO model. Base mission payload of up to 155lb.

Supported Types

(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)

Hardpoint Mountings: 2

Falco - Base Series Designation

Falco EVO - Improved Falco of larger size and provision for underwing stores; 6.2m length, 12.5m span, 2.5m height, 650kg weight; 20 hour endurance; 6,000m ceiling.

Falco Xplorer - Improved, dimensionally larger form of all preceding Falco entries; unveiled in June of 2019.

Military lapel ribbon for Operation Allied Force

Military lapel ribbon for the Arab-Israeli War

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Britain

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Midway

Military lapel ribbon for the Berlin Airlift

Military lapel ribbon for the Cuban Missile Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for pioneering aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War

Military lapel ribbon for the French-Indochina War

Military lapel ribbon for the Golden Age of Flight

Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War

Military lapel ribbon for the Indo-Pak Wars

Military lapel ribbon for the Iran-Iraq War

Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War

Military lapel ribbon for the 1982 Lebanon War

Military lapel ribbon for the Malayan Emergency

Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the attack on Pearl Harbor

Military lapel ribbon for the Six Day War

Military lapel ribbon for the Soviet-Afghan War

Military lapel ribbon for the Spanish Civil War

Military lapel ribbon for the Suez Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for the Ukranian-Russian War

Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War

Military lapel ribbon for Warsaw Pact of the Cold War-era

Military lapel ribbon for the WASP (WW2)

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2

Military lapel ribbon for the Yom Kippur War

Military lapel ribbon for experimental x-plane aircraft

Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.

Images Gallery

1 / 2

Image from official Leonardo marketing material.

2 / 2

Image copyright www.MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.

❮ ❯