All photos contained in this article were taken by U.S. Army Cpl. Benjamin Cossel and are the property of the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense (DoD). Click on photos below to view them full-size.

There's a military UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that's been getting some pretty rave reviews from U.S. military pesonnel lately, called the RQ-11A Raven. The Raven UAV, manufactured and marketed by AeroVironment (Monrovia, CA), is a compact, lightweight, hand-launched Small UAV (or, SUAV) that can be prepared and launched in minutes for the purpose of conducting aerial Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions during infantry combat operations, including urban warfare operations/MOUT.

A "brigade-level asset", the 4.18 lbs (1.9 kg) AeroVironment RQ-11A Raven SUAV is currently being employed for...

The Raven SUAV only requires three soldiers to operate it, and doesn't require an airfield to launch, since it's throw-launched. It can be utilized for both daytime and night operations, anytime there's a requirement for immediate, short range/low-cost real-time intelligence without risking human assets. Total situational awareness of the battlespace is one of the primary goals of the U.S. Army's Future Force Warrior (FFW) and Future Combat Systems (FCS) programs, so the Raven unmanned aerial vehicle should fit right in with those programs and any other future infantry programs that spring up. The name of game for future infantry would appear to be maximum telepresence, where unmanned vehicles of all types--UAVs, UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle), UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), and UGCV (Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle)--are wirelessly linked with pilots, ground troops/infantry personnel, and the military command structure/decision makers, so U.S. forces have superior information for tactical decision-making.