Malaysia’s Single Seat Hawks
he BAE Systems Hawk is a huge British aviation success story, with over 1,000 airframes built for service across 19 nations. While most Hawks are used as advanced jet trainers, 62 single‑seat examples were built as combat‑orientated fighter and light‑attack aircraft, designated the Hawk 200.
This single‑seat version of the Hawk never saw the same level of success as the twin‑seat variants, with the Royal Air Force of Oman, the Royal Malaysian Air Force, and the Indonesian Air Force as the only operators. However, the fact that the 200 series was built in such small numbers makes the jet incredibly attractive from an enthusiast’s perspective, so when plans were being made to visit the LIMA 2023 airshow, I just had to find a way to pop over to mainland Malaysia to photograph some Hawk 208s.
At the time of the visit in May 2023, Butterworth airbase was home to the RMAF’s 15 Skuadron, operating a mixed fleet of Hawk 108s and 208s, as well as 3 Skuadron (AW139) and 18 Skuadron (F/A‑18D Hornet). A day and a half at the Butterworth fence was sufficient time away from the LIMA show to capture the rare Hawk 208s in their natural habitat, alongside the other comings and goings of Royal Malaysian Air Force assets.
I love this kind of spotting. No airband radio, no local info, no setups — just waiting along the fenceline, listening out in the hope of some Adours starting up in the distance. We didn’t have to wait long before the first Hawk was taxiing to get airborne, albeit a 108 twin‑seat version, which stayed local to Butterworth and bashed the circuit for a good while. Fortunately, after a patient couple of hours we were rewarded with a pair of Hawk 208s departing in the harsh midday sun. Result. With the sun moving position, so did we. Placing ourselves nearer the approach for the afternoon yielded the same Hawk 108 as the morning, an AW139, and a C‑130H Hercules. Sadly, no single‑seat Hawks flew in the afternoon.
The following day we were off to a flier with a pair of Hawk 208s from 6 Skuadron, based at Labuan, as the first departures of the day. Frustratingly, the jets didn’t return to Butterworth, and we concluded that they had been at the base to support the opening ceremony flypast at the LIMA show and were returning to their home base. The remainder of the day was slow, although we had an RMAF PC‑7 drop in from Alor Setar, as well as a surprising visit by a Fokker 50 of the Republic of Singapore Air Force.
