RQ-7 Shadow
Country: 
United StatesManufacturer: AAI Corporation (Textron Systems)
The RQ-7 Shadow is the US Army brigade-level ISR drone: a catapult-launched UAV serving as the eyes of ground commanders, it has flown over 1 million hours in Iraq and Afghanistan as the 'eye' of Brigade Combat Teams.
The RQ-7 Shadow is the US Army brigade-level ISR drone: a catapult-launched UAV serving as the eyes of ground commanders, it has flown over 1 million hours in Iraq and Afghanistan as the 'eye' of Brigade Combat Teams.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- RQ-7 Shadow
- Alias
- AAI Shadow 200
- Manufacturer
- AAI Corporation (Textron Systems)
- Country
- United States
- Year
- 2002
- Category
- ISR (Reconnaissance)
- Class
- Tactical (< 600 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 125 km
- Endurance
- 9 h
- Top speed
- 227 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 4,600 m
- Propulsion
- Pistone rotativo UEL AR741, 38 hp
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 213 kg
- Payload
- 27 kg
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- EO/IR POP-300 con designatore laser, SAR opzionale
- Datalink / control
- LOS C-band, range 125 km
- Launch
- Catapulta pneumatico-idraulica
- Recovery
- Pista breve con cavo d'arresto (TALS)
Production & inventory
- Estimated inventory
- ~330 prodotti, ~165 in servizio US Army
Combat use
- ▸Iraq (2003-2011) — ISR for Brigade Combat Teams
- ▸Afghanistan (2003-2021) — target designation for A-10s and artillery
- ▸Exported to Italy, Australia, Sweden, Pakistan
- ▸US Army retirement (2024) — replaced by FTUAS (V-Bat)
Tags
Main operators
History
Developed by AAI starting in 1991 from the Pioneer project, won the Tactical UAV program in 1999, in US Army service from 2002. It has equipped every American Brigade Combat Team.
In 2024 the US Army began replacing it with the Future Tactical UAS (FTUAS) Increment 2, selecting Griffon Aerospace Valiant and Textron Aerosonde HQ.
On the development side, the AAI/Textron RQ-7 Shadow was for more than two decades the standard brigade-level tactical drone of the US Army: pneumatically catapult-launched, recovered with an arresting cable, it has logged more than one million combat flight hours.
On the brigade battlefield, the Shadow provided persistent ISR at Brigade Combat Team level in Iraq and Afghanistan, integrated with ground C4ISR systems and able to designate targets for artillery and strike aircraft.
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