RQ-20 Puma
Country: 
United StatesManufacturer: AeroVironment
AeroVironment's RQ-20 Puma is the amphibious man-portable tactical drone of the US Army and Marines: a hand-launched UAV with water-landing capability, it is the backbone of company-level ISR in littoral and maritime scenarios.
AeroVironment's RQ-20 Puma is the amphibious man-portable tactical drone of the US Army and Marines: a hand-launched UAV with water-landing capability, it is the backbone of company-level ISR in littoral and maritime scenarios.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- RQ-20 Puma
- Alias
- AeroVironment Puma AE / Puma 3
- Manufacturer
- AeroVironment
- Country
- United States
- Year
- 2008
- Category
- ISR (Reconnaissance)
- Class
- Small (< 25 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 20 km
- Endurance
- 2.5 h (3.5 h con Long Endurance Battery)
- Top speed
- 83 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 3,000 m
- Propulsion
- Motore elettrico, elica trattiva
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 6.3 kg
- Payload
- 1 kg
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- Gimbal Mantis i45 EO/IR con zoom 50x
- Datalink / control
- DDL digital data link AES-256, range 20 km
- Launch
- Lancio a mano o catapulta
- Recovery
- Atterraggio anfibio (terra/acqua)
Production & inventory
- Estimated inventory
- Migliaia (oltre 35 nazioni alleate)
Combat use
- ▸Iraq, Afghanistan (2008-) — platoon/company-level ISR
- ▸Anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa — US Navy
- ▸Ukraine (2022-) — donated by the US for frontline reconnaissance
- ▸Border control — US Border Patrol, Australia
Tags
Main operators
History
Developed from 2007 and in US Special Operations service from 2008, officially designated RQ-20A in 2012. The Puma 3 AE variant (2018) integrates encrypted control, the Mantis i45 gimbal and on-board AI tracking.
Since 2022 hundreds of Puma 3s have been in service in Ukraine, where they are particularly valued for resistance to Russian jamming thanks to the DDL datalink.
On the development side, the AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE is a saltwater-resistant hand-launched small UAS: rated amphibious, it can land on sea or ocean, runs on batteries and ships in fuel-cell variants (Puma LE) capable of 6.5 hours of endurance.
On the hybrid-warfare front, the Puma is used by US Army, USMC, Navy SEALs, Coast Guard and 25+ countries for coastal ISR, counter-piracy, border control and reconnaissance in Ukraine against Russian forces.
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