Boeing Insitu MQ-27 ScanEagle

The Boeing Insitu MQ-27 ScanEagle is a small, long-endurance, low-altitude unmanned aircraft built by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing, for surveillance and reconnaissance. Insitu designed it from its earlier SeaScan, a commercial aircraft meant to spot schools of tuna for fishermen, and the ScanEagle emerged from a strategic alliance between Boeing and Insitu. It carries a stabilized electro-optical or infrared camera and a communications system with a range of over 100 km, and it can stay aloft for more than 20 hours. It needs no airfield: a pneumatic launcher called the SuperWedge throws it into the air, and the Skyhook system catches a wingtip hook on a hanging rope to bring it back. The type has been deployed in Iraq since August 2004, entered United States Navy service in 2005, is flown by the armed forces of many other countries, and has been offered in civil and upgraded versions such as the ScanEagle 2 and the NightEagle.