The

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

(DoD) employs

Unmanned Aerial Systems An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controlle ...

(UAS) across all echelons to support tactical, operational, and strategic operations. The types of UAS that are used in these operations are categorized into "Groups" according to their size and capability. Previous to 2010, UAS were categorized into "Tiers" or "Classes" separately by each branch of the military. In order to promote a homogeneous categorization, the "group system" was developed.

DoD UAS Groups

The "Group" system has 5 categories, from 1 to 5, with each category increasing in capability.

Tier System (Deprecated)

The previous (used circa 2004 - 2011) classification system, termed the "Tier System", was used by military planners to designate the various individual aircraft elements in an overall usage plan for integrated operations. The Tiers do not refer to specific models of aircraft, but rather roles the aircraft would fill. The

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

, U.S. Marine Corps, and

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

each have their own tier system, and the systems are themselves not integrated.

US Air Force tiers

* Tier N/A: Small/Micro UAV. Role filled by BATMAV ( Wasp Block III). * Tier I: Low altitude, long endurance. Role filled by the Gnat 750. * Tier II: Medium altitude, long endurance (MALE). Role currently filled by the Predator and MQ-9 Reaper. * Tier II+:

High altitude, long endurance High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

conventional UAV (or HALE UAV). Altitude: 60,000 to , less than airspeed, radius, 24‑hour time-on-station capability. Complementary to the Tier III- aircraft. Role currently filled by the

RQ-4 Global Hawk The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is a high-altitude, remotely-piloted surveillance aircraft of the 1990s–2020s. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical (now part of Northrop Grumman), and known as Tier II+ during development. The ...

. * Tier III-: High altitude, long endurance low-observable UAV. Same parameters as, and complementary to, the Tier II+ aircraft. The

RQ-3 DarkStar The RQ-3 DarkStar (known as Tier III- or "Tier three minus" during development) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Its first flight was on March 29, 1996. The Department of Defense terminated DarkStar in January 1999, after determining the UAV ...

was originally intended to fulfill this role before it was "terminated". Role now filled by

RQ-170 Sentinel The Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Lockheed Martin and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). While the USAF has released few detail ...

US Marine Corps tiers

* Tier N/A: Micro UAV. Wasp III fills this role, driven largely by the desire for commonality with the USAF BATMAV. * Tier I: Role currently filled by the Dragon Eye but all ongoing and future procurement for the Dragon Eye program is going now to the RQ-11B Raven B. * Tier II: Role currently filled by the

Scan Eagle The Boeing Insitu ScanEagle is a small, long-endurance, low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing, and is used for reconnaissance. The ScanEagle was designed by Insitu based on the Insitu SeaScan, a co ...

and the

AAI RQ-7 Shadow The AAI RQ-7 Shadow is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Army, Australian Army, Swedish Army, Turkish Air Force and Italian Army for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment ...

. * Tier III: For two decades, the role of medium range tactical UAV was filled by the Pioneer UAV. In July 2007, the Marine Corps announced its intention to retire the aging Pioneer fleet and transition to the

RQ-7 Shadow The AAI RQ-7 Shadow is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Army, Australian Army, Swedish Army, Turkish Air Force and Italian Army for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment ...

tactical unmanned aircraft system by

AAI Corporation AAI Corporation is an aerospace and defense development and manufacturing firm, located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, US. Formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation, AAI was acquired by Textron in 2007. It currently operate ...

. The first Marine Shadow systems have already been delivered, and training for their respective Marine Corps units is underway. Role currently filled by the AAI RQ-7 Shadow, although USMC planners do not view this aircraft as meeting future Tier III requirements.USMC RQ-7 Shadow Homepage
/ref>

US Army tiers

* Tier I: Small UAV. Role filled by the RQ-11A/B Raven. * Tier II: Short Range Tactical UAV. Role filled by the RQ-7A/B Shadow 200. * Tier III: Medium Range Tactical UAV. Role formerly filled by the MQ-5A/B Hunter and IGNAT/IGNAT-ER, but has transitioned to the Extended Range Multi-Purpose (ERMP) MQ-1C Gray Eagle.

Future Combat Systems Future Combat Systems (FCS) was the United States Army's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009. Formally launched in 2003, FCS was envisioned to create new brigades equipped with new manned and unmanned vehicles linked by an unpr ...
(Cancelled)

Future Combat Systems (FCS) was the United States Army's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009. * Class I: For small units. Role to be filled by all new UAV with some similarity to

Micro Air Vehicle A micro air vehicle (MAV), or micro aerial vehicle, is a class of miniature UAVs that has a size restriction and may be autonomous. Modern craft can be as small as 5 centimeters. Development is driven by commercial, research, government, and mil ...

. * Class II: For companies (cancelled). * Class III: For battalions (cancelled). * Class IV: For brigades. Role to be filled by the RQ-8A/B / MQ-8B Fire Scout.

References

{{reflist United States Department of Defense Unmanned military aircraft of the United States