Last updated: 2 August 2024
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The Main Part of the Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles presents concise information about all missiles and rockets, which have received a numerical designation in the DOD's joint Designation System for Unmanned Aerospace Vehicles since 27 June 1963.

In 1997 the Department of Defense introduced a new Q-for-UAV series in the designation system for manned(!) aircraft. This series covers recoverable UAVs, many of which are somewhat similar in operation to manned aircraft (e.g. taking off and landing on a runway). Similar to the articles in the DUSRM main part, the primary goal of this appendix is to provide a reference to all allocated designations in this Q series, and to highlight the differences between the UAVs' versions.

UAV Index

General Atomics RQ/MQ-1 Predator
IAI/Pioneer Inc. RQ-2 Pioneer
Lockheed Martin RQ-3 DarkStar
Northrop Grumman (Teledyne Ryan) RQ-4 Global Hawk
Northrop Grumman (TRW/IAI) RQ/MQ-5 Hunter
Alliant Techsystems RQ-6 Outrider
AAI RQ-7 Shadow 200
Northrop Grumman RQ/MQ-8 Fire Scout
General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B)
MMIST CQ-10 SnowGoose
AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven
AeroVironment RQ-12 Wasp AE
(Q-13)
AeroVironment RQ-14 Dragon Eye / Swift
DRS RQ-15 Neptune
Honeywell RQ-16 T-Hawk
MTC Technologies MQ-17 SpyHawk
Boeing MQ-18 Hummingbird
AAI MQ-19 Aerosonde
AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE
Boeing/Insitu RQ-21 Blackjack
AeroVironment RQ-22 Global Observer
NASC RQ-23 TigerShark
Kaman CQ-24 K-MAX
Boeing MQ-25 Stingray
AeroNautics RQ-26 Aerostar
Boeing/Insitu MQ-27 ScanEagle
Skydio RQ-28 X2D
Technology Service Corporation RQ-29 LEA

Out of sequence:

General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger
Shield AI MQ-35 V-BAT
Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie
General Atomics XQ-67 OBSS
Northrop Grumman RQ-72 Great Horned Owl
Northrop Grumman RQ-73 SHEPARD
Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel
"RQ-180" → Northrop Grumman P-ISR

For comments and suggestions, send e-mail to: Andreas Parsch

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Designation-Systems.Net

Last Updated: 15 January 2024