Marine Corps Cpl. Andrew Abbott with Logistics Combat Element, Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, launches the RQ-20B Puma small unmanned aircraft system at Mount Bundey Training Area, Northern Territory, Australia, Aug. 18, 2020. Abbott is a native of Greenwood, Del. Marines integrated with Australian Army forward observers to support fire missions with real time video feeds from the Puma. ( Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Harrison Rakhshani)


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 controller and a system of communications with the UAV. The flight of UAVs may operate under remote control by a human operator, as remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA), or with various degrees of autonomy, such as autopilot assistance, up to fully autonomous aircraft that have no provision for human intervention. UAVs were originally developed through the twentieth century for military missions too "dull, dirty or dangerous" for humans, and by the twenty-first, they had become essential assets to most militaries. As control technologies improved and costs fell, their use expanded to many non-military applications. These include forest fire monitoring, aerial photography, product deliveries, agriculture, policing and surveillance, infrastructure inspections, entertainment, science,[ smuggling, and drone racing.


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