Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA}

Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA)

What is it?

Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) have been referred to as unmanned aircraft (UA), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and/or remotely piloted vehicles (RPV). However, RPA is the current and correct designation used to describe MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper and RQ-4 Global Hawk systems. These RPA are flown either line-of-sight (LOS) or beyond line-of-sight via satellite from a ground control station (GCS). The BLOS concept minimizes the forward footprint of the RPA while allowing global combat missions to be flown from the U.S.

RPA provide ground commanders a persistent and highly capable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform capable of finding, fixing, targeting, tracking, engaging, and assessing almost any given target with the flexibility to be dynamically re-tasked. MQ-1/9 RPA provide real time full motion video (FMV) in both IR and DTV, have SIGINT capability, as well as strike capability with on board precision guided munitions. Mission sets for the MQ-1/9 include but are not limited to ISR, SIGINT, Close Air Support (CAS), and Air Interdiction (AI).