REDHAWK is a software-defined radio (SDR) framework designed to support the development, deployment, and management of real-time software radio applications. To support the design and development of software applications, REDHAWK provides tools that allow development and testing of software modules called "Components" and composition of Components into "Waveform Applications" that can be seamlessly deployed on a single computer or multiple network-enabled computers.

The REDHAWK IDE provides tools to support development of REDHAWK software. The development and deployment of REDHAWK Applications are aided by graphical editors and drag-and-drop Waveform construction. The IDE allows users to interact with and control multiple running REDHAWK instances and applications.