UAS groups of the United States military

Background

From about 2004 to 2011, U.S. military planners used various Tier systems to designate roles for integrated operations, with each service branch developing its own. The U.S. Air Force defined Tier N/A (small/micro UAV, role filled by BATMAV/Wasp Block III), Tier I (low altitude, long endurance, role filled by Gnat 750), Tier II (MALE, role filled by Predator and MQ-9 Reaper), Tier II+ (HALE, role filled by RQ-4 Global Hawk), and Tier III- (high altitude, long endurance low-observable, role originally intended for RQ-3 DarkStar before its termination, now filled by RQ-170 Sentinel).

The U.S. Marine Corps used Tier N/A (micro UAV, Wasp III), Tier I (role filled by Dragon Eye, transitioning to RQ-11B Raven B), Tier II (role filled by Scan Eagle and RQ-7 Shadow), and Tier III (medium range tactical UAV, formerly Pioneer, now RQ-7 Shadow, though planners did not view it as meeting future requirements). The U.S. Army employed Tier I (small UAV, RQ-11A/B Raven), Tier II (short range tactical UAV, RQ-7A/B Shadow 200), and Tier III (medium range tactical UAV, formerly MQ-5A/B Hunter and IGNAT/IGNAT-ER, transitioned to MQ-1C Gray Eagle). The Army's Future Combat Systems program, active from 2003 to early 2009, proposed four UAS classes: Class I (for small units, to be filled by a new UAV similar to a Micro Air Vehicle), Class II (for companies, cancelled), Class III (for battalions, cancelled), and Class IV (for brigades, to be filled by RQ-8A/B / MQ-8B Fire Scout).