The Raven is used by the
United States Army,
Air Force,
Marine Corps, and
Special Operations Command. Additionally, foreign customers include
Australia,
Estonia,
Italy,
Denmark,
Spain and
Czech Republic. As of early 2012, over 19,000 airframes have already been shipped, making it the most widely adopted UAV system in the world today. The British forces in Iraq used Raven equipment. The
Royal Danish Army acquired 12 Raven systems in September 2007; three systems will be delivered to the
Huntsmen Corps, while the remainder will be deployed with soldiers from the Artillery Training Center. A 2010 documentary film,
Armadillo, shows Danish forces deploying a Raven in operations around
FOB Armadillo in the
Helmand province of Afghanistan. The drone also makes an appearance being used by the
SEAL operators in the 2012 film
Act of Valor. The Netherlands MoD has acquired 72 operational RQ-11B systems with a total value of $23.74 million for use within Army reconnaissance units, its Marine Corps and its Special Forces (KCT). At the turn of the year 2009 to 2010 the systems were deployed above the village Veen, as part of the Intensification of Civil-Military Cooperation. In 2012 and 2013 the Raven was loaned by the Defense department to the police department of
Almere to combat burglary. In April 2011, the U.S. announced that it would be supplying 85 Raven B systems to the Pakistan Army. In June 2011, the U.S. announced $145.4 million in proposed aid for anti-terror efforts in north and east Africa, including four Raven systems to be used by forces from Uganda and Burundi as part of the ongoing African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The US has also announced its intent to supply an unspecified number of Ravens to the Ukrainian armed forces. Ukrainian operators criticized the Raven's analog control system that made them vulnerable to jamming and hacking by sophisticated Russian-backed separatists. Iran has claimed it has captured two RQ-11, one "in Shahrivar 1390 (August 21 – September 19, 2011) and the other one in Aban (October 22 – November 20, 2012)". It also indicated that "much of the data of these drones has been decoded", but did not indicate whether the drone has been duplicated, as has been done with the
RQ-170 and the
Boeing Insitu ScanEagle. In September 2016, the Kenya Army was introduced to the Raven, and would "now be able to take lessons learned from the Raven training and apply them" on operations. In January 2023, the
U.S. Marine Corps revealed they had retired the RQ-11B Raven SUAS in favor of the
FLIR Systems R80 SkyRaider, a
VTOL UAV that is easier to launch and recover and can provide a hover-and-stare surveillance capability.
Current operators ; •
Australian Armed Forces ; •
Austrian Armed Forces ; •
Belgian Armed Forces ; •
Bulgarian Armed Forces ; •
Canadian Armed Forces ; •
Colombian Armed Forces ; •
Public Force of Costa Rica ; •
Estonian Armed Forces ; •
Hungarian Armed Forces ; •
Iraqi Armed Forces ; •
Italian Armed Forces ; •
Kenyan Armed Forces - Kenya Army "Military Intelligence Battalion members received basic training on assembly, disassembly, repair, and preventative maintenance for the AeroVironment RQ-11 Raven as those topics relate to basic mission planning and advanced flight plans" during training held by personnel of 1st Battalion,
124th Infantry Regiment (ARNG), deployed to
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa between September 8–24, 2016, at a training center in Kenya, giving the Kenyans "a new capability on the battlefield." ; •
Lebanese Armed Forces: 12 systems ; •
Lithuanian Armed Forces ; •
Luxembourg Armed Forces ; •
Macedonian Armed Forces ; •
Netherlands Armed Forces ; •
Norwegian Armed Forces ; •
Pakistan Army ; •
Armed Forces of the Philippines ; •
Portuguese Armed Forces ; •
Romanian Armed Forces ; •
Saudi Arabian Armed Forces ; •
Slovak Armed Forces ; •
Spanish Armed Forces ; •
Thai Armed Forces ; •
Ugandan Armed Forces - training given to
Ugandan Air Force in December 2011. ; •
Ukrainian Armed Forces: 72 systems •
Ukrainian Air Guard ; •
British Armed Forces ; •
U.S. Armed Forces: 1,798 systems ; •
Uzbek Armed Forces ; •
Yemeni Armed Forces ==Specifications==