AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven

The AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven is a small unmanned aircraft that a soldier launches by hand, throwing it into the air much like a free-flight model plane. An electric motor drives a pusher propeller, and the aircraft can be flown by remote control from a ground station or left to follow GPS waypoints on its own, landing itself by a controlled descent to a chosen point. It carries day and night cameras and is used for reconnaissance and surveillance at company level. The Raven traces back to the FQM-151 of 1999, took its present form in 2002, won the United States Army small unmanned aircraft competition in 2005 and entered full-rate production in 2006. More than nineteen thousand airframes had been delivered by early 2012, and the United States and a long list of allied armed forces have flown it.