AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven

Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) [ 2003 ]

Over 13,000 Raven SUAVs have been delivered from AeroVironment to a variety of global operators, making it the most widely used UAV of its kind.

Authored By: Dan Alex | Last Edited: 06/22/2022 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

An Iraqi soldier reviews his RQ-11 Raven SUAV

GO TO SPECIFICATIONS [+]

Advertisements

The AeroVinronment RQ-11 "Raven" is classified as a "Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle" (SUAV), this attributed directly to its manageable dimensions and weight. The Raven was developed from the private venture "FQM-151 Pointer" SUAV appearing in 1999 which went on to be used by both the US Army and USMC. AeroVironmental, Incorporated is headed by aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready and was founded in 1971, headquartered out of Monrovia, California. The firm went on to produce a myriad if ingenious technology products including the first viable human-powered airplane, various solar-powered aircraft and solar-powered and conventionally-powered UAVs, the hydrogen-powered "Global Observer", the solar-powered "Sunraycer" car and even a flying pterodactyl dinosaur repilca. The Raven SUAV is currently in use by forces from Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Iraq, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom (on loan from the US) and the United States. Burundi and Uganda of the African Union are set to receive the type to combat insurgents in Somalia.

The Raven can fulfill various aerial duties for both military and civilian markets but is best known for its military uses where it has been used to visually acquire targets of interest, gather area intelligence, or reconnoiter a location. To date, some 13,000 Ravens have been produced and are currently seeing extensive use in the hands of the US SOCOM (Special Forces), the United States Army and the United States Air Force as well as others in the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The small nature of the UAV has proven useful at the brigade, company and small unit levels by delivering real-time battlefield information. The Raven first flew in 2001 and was formally introduced in 2003. Serial production began in 2006 with each unit costing American tax payers $35,000. The entire Raven complex - aircraft and the applicable control station - runs upwards of $250,000.

Design of the Raven UAV is conventional as aircraft go though key qualities of the system are its compact dimensions and hand-launched operation. The Raven takes to the air by a member simply launching the aircraft into the air, nose-first. The major working components of the airframe are contained in a rectangular fuselage capped by a curved nose cone assembly housing the all-important camera suite. At the nose of the fuselage is a dual-forward, side-looking CCD EO camera system with electronic pan-tilt-zoom functionality and full stabilization as well as an Infrared night-vision camera with forward-looking and side-looking capability. A tailboom extends from the lower rear of the Raven fuselage and sports a single vertical tail fin with a single-piece horizontal tailplane. The main wing component of the Raven is noticeably canted upwards outboard of the fuselage. A simple two-bladed propeller is identified at the top rear of the fuselage and is used to propel the small UAV through the air (in a "pusher" arrangement). Power is supplied by a single Aveox 27/26/7-AV electric motor which provides the aircraft with a top speed of 56 kilometers per hour and mission endurance is approximately 1 to 1.5 hours. The vehicle measures a running length of 55 inches and sports a wingspan of 4.5 feet with a 4.2lb operating weight. These factors allow it to be carried in a standard rucksack.

The RQ-11 can operate in both day and night environments thanks to its use of the daytime and infrared camera systems and can be controlled by a ground-based operator or arranged to fly autonomously via set waypoints, guided to each point by GPS navigation. Unlike larger, more powerful UAV platforms currently in service, the Raven's aerial surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities is limited by line-of-sight operation up to 10 kilometers though its video delivery is in real-time and full-color. An "autoland" function is built into the software to allow for recovery and reuse.

The initial production form of the Raven series was the RQ-11A though this form is no longer being offered today. The US Army procured at least 376 Raven A models (after its selection as the winner of the Army SUAV competition) and this was followed by the "enhanced" RQ-11B Raven B which has also spawned the eight-channel RQ-11B as well as the RQ-11B DDL with Digital Data Link for frequency management and interoperability. The B-model builds upon the inherent strengths found in the original Raven design in terms of mission endurance and capabilities to include support for IR illumination, upgraded GCU, a lighter operational weight and improved optics. for the long run. Full-rate production of the B-model began on October 5th, 2006 and 80 examples were in the field by the end of the year.©MilitaryFactory.com

Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.

October 2011 - On October 5th, 2011, the US DoD announced a $6,874,175 contract for the procurement of Raven Digital Link Systems and spare parts. The contracting identification number being W58RGZ-11-C-0055.

September 2012 - In late September, it was announced that Yemen will procure four RQ-11 UAV systems from the United States Department of Defense.

October 2018 - The United States Air Force has awarded AeroVironment with a $13 million USD contract to support Latin American / Caribbean allies through its RQ-11B Raven air vehicle system.

Specifications

Service Year

2003

Origin

United States

Status

ACTIVE
In Active Service.

Crew

0
UNMANNED

Production

13,000
UNITS

AeroVironment, Incorporated - USA

(View other Aviaton-Related Manufacturers)

Australia; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Iraq; Italy; Lebanon; Netherlands; Norway; Spain; United Kingdom; United States

(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)

✓ Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance (ISR), Scout
Surveil ground targets / target areas to assess environmental threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.

✓ Special Forces
Serving Special Forces / Special Operations elements and missions.

✓ Unmanned Capability
Aircraft inherently designed (or later developed) with an unmanned capability to cover a variety of over-battlefield roles.

RUGGED AIRFRAME

Inherent ability of airframe to take considerable damage.

UNMANNED OPERATION

Design features ability to fly sans pilot, actions controlled onboard through programming and / or ground-based operator.

CAMERA EQUIPMENT

Payload supports photographic equipment providing still and / or real-time image / video results.

Length

3.0 ft
(0.90 m)

Width/Span

4.5 ft
(1.38 m)

Empty Wgt

2 lb
(1 kg)

MTOW

2 lb
(1 kg)

Wgt Diff

+0 lb
(+0 kg)

(Showcased structural values pertain to the base AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven production variant)

Installed: 1 x Aveox 27/26/7-AV electric motor driving two-bladed propeller arranged in pusher configuration.

Max Speed

35 mph
(56 kph | 30 kts)

Range

6 mi
(10 km | 19 nm)

♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the base AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)

None. Payload consists of a daytime color camera as well as infrared night-vision.

Supported Types

(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)

FQM-151 "Pointer" - Original US military designation; appearing in 1999.

RQ-11A "Raven A" - Initial Production Version; appearing in 2002; since discontinued.

RQ-11B "Raven B" - Variant.

RQ-11B (8-Channel) - Variant.

RQ-11B DDL - Variant; digital data link system.

Military lapel ribbon for Operation Allied Force

Military lapel ribbon for the Arab-Israeli War

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Britain

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Midway

Military lapel ribbon for the Berlin Airlift

Military lapel ribbon for the Cuban Missile Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for pioneering aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War

Military lapel ribbon for the French-Indochina War

Military lapel ribbon for the Golden Age of Flight

Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War

Military lapel ribbon for the Indo-Pak Wars

Military lapel ribbon for the Iran-Iraq War

Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War

Military lapel ribbon for the 1982 Lebanon War

Military lapel ribbon for the Malayan Emergency

Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the attack on Pearl Harbor

Military lapel ribbon for the Six Day War

Military lapel ribbon for the Soviet-Afghan War

Military lapel ribbon for the Spanish Civil War

Military lapel ribbon for the Suez Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for the Ukranian-Russian War

Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War

Military lapel ribbon for Warsaw Pact of the Cold War-era

Military lapel ribbon for the WASP (WW2)

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2

Military lapel ribbon for the Yom Kippur War

Military lapel ribbon for experimental x-plane aircraft

Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.

Images Gallery

1 / 3

An Iraqi soldier reviews his RQ-11 Raven SUAV

2 / 3

A US soldier launches his RQ-11 SUAV

3 / 3

An RQ-11 SUAV is launched for its next mission

❮ ❯