Unmanned aerial vehicles in the United States military

Common card · No. 202367

The United States military operates a large number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also known as Unmanned Aircraft Systems [UAS]). As of 2014 these were known to include 7,362 RQ-11 Ravens; 990 AeroVironment Wasp IIIs; 1,137 AeroVironment RQ-20 Pumas; 306 RQ-16 T-Hawk small UAS systems; 246 MQ-1 Predators; MQ-1C Gray Eagles; 126 MQ-9 Reapers; 491 RQ-7 Shadows; and 33 RQ-4 Global Hawk large systems. The military role of unmanned aircraft systems is growing at unprecedented rates. In 2005, tactical- and theater-level unmanned aircraft alone had flown over 100,000 flight hours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, organized under Task Force Liberty in Afghanistan and Task Force ODIN in Iraq. Throughout the US missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran rapid improvements in technology enabled steadily increasing capabilities to be placed on smaller airframes. Throughout those campaigns, further advances continued to contribute to a large increase in the number...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Daniel J. McLain, Public domain