When Ubisoft announced that it was developing a new Tom Clancy franchise under the name of H.A.W.X. (use of periods optional), a lot of people thought of what the X might stand for, as the official designation for the game was "High Altitude Warfare" and there was no X anywhere to be found in those three words.

Ubisoft revealed the answer to this nagging question and also offered details on the faction that the player will be part of as he enters the game world. X stands for "eXperimental" from "Experimental Squadron." The story goes like this: during the Second World War, the United States created Project FALCO (man, the guys at Ubisoft really like their acronyms). FALCO stood for "Foreign Aircraft and Logistics Capture Operations," and it was designed to obtain data on the developments of the enemies of the United States in the field of military aviation. A public scandal involving spy operation led to the official disbandment of FALCO sometime during the '50's, but in reality the project went "dark," with only an elite few knowing about its existence. The name was also changed to HAWX.

In 2012, when the game takes place, as more and more Private Military Contractors become the de facto military forces of the planet, those within the military of the United States believe that the world is on the brink of an all-out war. HAWX continues to exist and has evolved to include the best pilots there are in the military of the United States, complete with the best military hardware, some of it still in testing.

During peacetime, the people who make up HAWX keep a low profile, being only involved in testing and training other pilots but, as global conflict is nearing, they are called upon to take out suspected enemy targets, to execute recon missions and espionage tasks and to generally be the first line of defense against rogue private military units.

The game is being developed by Ubisoft Bucharest and is set to be released on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and on the PC on September 10.