The FQ-101 Lammergeier Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle is a post-war development on the FQ-99 "Wombat", a UCAV that was hastily developed and used during the late stages of the Human-Covenant War, largely due to shortages of proper fighter aircraft for close air support details. Despite the Wombat's effectiveness against low-flying Covenant aircraft such as Spirit- and Phantom-class dropships and gunships, as well as ground-based infantry or armour, however, it failed in the role of fighter support, ultimately proving cumbersome in flight and interfering with UNSC and Covenant Separatist interceptors engaged in aerial combat. As such, development was almost immediately begun in improving the design of the FQ-99 to fit a wider combat role; the first of these upgrades came in the form of the