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The U.S. Army's Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (CRS Report for Congress)

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Release Date Revised Nov. 26, 2024
Report Number IF12668
Report Type In Focus
Authors Daniel M. Gettinger
Source Agency Congressional Research Service
Older Revisions
  • Premium   May 15, 2024 (3 pages, $24.95) add
Summary:

The U.S. Army is acquiring a family of small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) for ground maneuver elements at the battalion level and below to provide real-time reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) capabilities. For the past two decades, this role was largely filled by the AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven (Figure 1). On February 8, 2024, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth and General Randy George, Army Chief of Staff, announced Army plans to phase the RQ-11 Raven out of service as part of a broader “rebalance” of the Army’s aviation investments. This product covers the Group 1 and 2 UAS—those that weigh less than 55 pounds and fly at or below 3,500 feet above ground level—intended to serve as successors to the Army’s legacy RSTA sUAS. In 1988, the Department of Defense (DOD) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Joint Program Office (UAV JPO) published its first “Master Plan” for uncrewed aircraft, which established the requirements and acquisition strategy for UAV systems. The Master Plan recommended a “close range” UAS for “lower-level tactical units,” one that could be acquired in large numbers and at low cost. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Military Operations in Urban Terrain Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (MOUT ACTD), an Army-led experimentation program, showed how a man-portable sUAS could provide ground units with enhanced situational awareness and force protection. The MOUT ACTD led the Army and Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to work with AeroVironment to develop in 2002 the fixed-wing, 4-pound RQ-11 Raven, a smaller, more advanced version of the Gulf War-era AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer. The Army introduced the RQ-11 in 2003 and, by 2010, fielded close to 4,000 Raven aircraft. The Marine Corps, SOCOM, and the Air Force also adopted the Raven.