The Royal Malaysian Air Force has 18 Hawk aircraft, consisting of 4 Hawk 108 export versions as training aircraft and 14 Hawk 208 as combat aircraft. The Hawk 108 is a two-seat advanced weapons trainer export version for the Royal Malaysian Air Force with additional avionics, an optional forward-looking infrared, a redesigned wing and HOTAS. Fitted with BAE Sky Guardian RWR and wing tip AAM rails. Ten ordered December 1990, and delivered January 1994 to September 1995. The Hawk 208 is a single-seat, lightweight multi-role combat aircraft export version for the Royal Malaysian Air Force. It has been used for air defence, air-denial, anti-shipping, interdiction, close air support, and ground attack.
On 5 March 2013, during the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff, five Hawk 208 together with three American-made Boeing F/A-18D Hornets were employed in airstrikes on hideouts of the terrorist group Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo in Lahad Datu, Sabah ahead of the ground assault by joint forces of the Malaysian Army and Royal Malaysian Police. The Hawk 208s flew 15 sorties, each Hawk 200 dropping Mk 82 unguided bombs in the first sortie and firing CRV7 rockets at additional ground targets on the second and third. A spokesman for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a phone interview that the objective of the airstrikes was to “soften the ground before troops move in,”.
The BAE Systems Hawk is a British single-engine, jet-powered advanced trainer aircraft. It was first flown at Dunsfold, Surrey, in 1974 as the Hawker Siddeley Hawk, and subsequently produced by its successor companies, British Aerospace and BAE Systems, respectively. It has been used in a training capacity and as a low-cost combat aircraft. Operators of the Hawk include the Royal Air Force (notably the Red Arrows display team) and a considerable number of foreign military operators.
