RQ-11 Raven
AeroVironment's RQ-11 Raven is the world's most widely used man-portable tactical drone: a 1.9 kg hand-launched UAV, it is the 'platoon sentinel' of the US Army and over 30 allied armed forces.
RQ-11 Raven
AeroVironment's RQ-11 Raven is the world's most widely used man-portable tactical drone: a 1.9 kg hand-launched UAV, it is the 'platoon sentinel' of the US Army and over 30 allied armed forces.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- RQ-11 Raven
- Alias
- AeroVironment RQ-11B Raven
- Manufacturer
- AeroVironment
- Country
- United States
- Year
- 2003
- Category
- ISR (Reconnaissance)
- Class
- Mini (< 2 kg)
- Status
- In service
Performance
- Range
- 10 km
- Endurance
- 60-90 min
- Top speed
- 81 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 4,500 m
- Propulsion
- Motore elettrico, elica trattiva
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 1.9 kg
- Payload
- 0.2 kg
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- EO Mantis i23 con zoom + IR notturno
- Datalink / control
- DDL digital data link, range 10 km
- Launch
- Lancio a mano
- Recovery
- Atterraggio autonomo (deep stall)
Production & inventory
- Estimated inventory
- ~19.000 unità prodotte (USA, NATO, oltre 30 nazioni)
Combat use
- ▸Iraq (2003-2011) — urban ISR in Baghdad, Fallujah, Mosul
- ▸Afghanistan (2003-2021) — platoon-level COIN reconnaissance
- ▸Ukraine (2022-) — donated by the US and Norway for frontline ISR
- ▸NATO / partner operations — Estonia, Italy, Spain, Australia
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Main operators
History
Developed from 2001 and in service from 2003 with the US Army and Marine Corps, the Raven has been used extensively in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa for platoon-level reconnaissance up to 10 km from the soldier.
Since 2022 over 1,000 Ravens have been delivered to Ukraine, where they operate alongside commercial DJI systems for trench surveillance and artillery spotting.
On the development side, the AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven is the most widely deployed hand-launched mini-UAV in the world: derived from the FQM-151 Pointer, it entered US Army service in 2003 with more than 19,000 units produced and fielded by 20+ NATO countries.
On the platoon-level battlefield, the Raven revolutionized squad/platoon tactical reconnaissance: backpack-portable, hand-launched, with autonomous deep-stall landing, it provides real-time EO/IR video out to 10 km and has become the low-tier ISR standard in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
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