HK-Aerial Hunter-Killer Drones
Silent in the sky, death descends without warning.
The HK-Aerial is the flying Hunter-Killer of Skynet's machine army in the Terminator franchise. Hunter-Killers, or HKs, are machines without a human appearance that appear in the future war segments of the film series; two types exist, ground-based tanks and aerial drones.
Lore & Background
In Terminator Salvation, set in 2018, airborne units such as HK-Aerials, Transports and Aerostats, which are smaller versions of the Hunter Killer-aerials, survey the skies while HK-Tanks, Mototerminators and various Terminator models patrol cities and roads. In that film an HK tracks down the Resistance's submarine headquarters and destroys it, killing Resistance Command, and the Resistance pilot Blair Williams is shot down by a Hunter Killer.
Reader's Guide
In Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the T-X takes control of weaponized T-1 and HK drones at Cyber Research Systems to kill its employees. Terminator Genisys shows aerial HKs dropping four-legged Spider Tanks.
Did You Know?
- In Terminator Salvation, Aerostats, smaller versions of the HK-Aerials, fly over areas looking for humans and report back to the Harvester.
- Unlike the T-800 models which mimic humans, HK-Aerials make no attempt at disguise, representing Skynet's open declaration of war.
More in Powers & Artifacts
Elsewhere in The Terminator
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