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ScanEagle

ScanEagleUnmanned

OEM: Insitu

First Produced: 2004

Status: Active

Role: Catapult-launched long-endurance ISR UAS

Primary Operator: U.S. Navy / U.S. Marine Corps / allied operators

OEM Website: insitu.com

The ScanEagle is a 40-pound catapult-launched uncrewed aircraft built by Boeing subsidiary Insitu, designed to provide small naval vessels and expeditionary units with more than 18 hours of persistent imagery and signals collection. It is recovered by flying into a vertical Skyhook line, letting the system operate from frigates, patrol boats, and austere forward sites without a runway.

ScanEagle has flown more than a million operational hours since its first Navy deployment in 2005, supporting counter-piracy off Somalia, maritime interdiction in the Persian Gulf, and extensive overland ISR in Iraq and Afghanistan. The platform lineage continued into the larger RQ-21A Blackjack and shaped the Navy's requirements for shipboard Group 2 and Group 3 uncrewed systems.

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