The AAI RQ-7 Shadow is a tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle which is able to operate on day and night missions. It was
developed by the American AAI corporation and it is in production since 1999.
Description[]
The RQ-7 Shadow is designed as a small, leightweight, tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. It is built of composite materials, and it is powered by a propeller and it has a tricycle landing gear. Unlike other drones it does a catapult take-off and landing and this automatically, without a pilot on a ground station.
It has a camera sytem able to record conventional and infrared videos as well as it has an electro optical camera, the camera system is equipped with a laiser pointer and a selectable infrared filter, the RQ-7 Shadow uses a GPS navigation system.
The range is limited due to the connection to the base, which is operating it, so that it has a maximum combat radius of 125 km. The RQ-7 is powered by a propeller that is built of a conventional Wankel engine, which has a power of 38 horsepower, it makes the RQ-7 able to reach a maximum speed of 200 km/h.