Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

For the special weapon with the same name, see Weapon UAV.

"I'm glad there aren't any live people in these things. Aren't you?"

― Alvin H. Davenport to Blaze

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft that can fly without a human pilot on board. Some UAVs are designed to be controlled by humans remotely, while others feature an onboard artificial intelligence. There are also rare cases of decoy or dummy target UAVs, designed to fly a predetermined path without any command. Like other aircraft, UAVs can be designed for certain roles, including reconnaissance. Combat UAVs are sometimes referred to as UCAVs.

UAVs have featured prominently in many Ace Combat titles, usually as enemies, since their real-life development goes back decades before the franchise started. Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere was the first game to feature UAVs, but they were not a major focus in a game's story until Ace Combat Infinity and especially Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Players have only been able to control UAVs in Ace Combat 3 (playing as Nemo) and Ace Combat 7 (as a special weapon).

List of UAVs

The following list is sorted in order of appearance.

• Zone of Endless - UAV AI program
• Decoy UCAV - training
• R-701 Triakis - defense
• Aurora - AI that can hijack UAVs
• Searcher - recon and guidance system
• SLUAV - supports the Hrimfaxi and the Alicorn
• X-45 - attack
• Vogel - supports the hijacked Arkbird
• UAV-45 - supports the CFA-44 Nosferatu
• RQ-4 Global Hawk - recon
• Q-X
• QFA-44 Carmilla - recon and attack
• MQ-90 Quox - recon, attack, and support for QFA-44 and Excalibur
• MQ-90L Quox bis - laser attack and QFA-44 support
• MQ-99 - attack
• Arsenal Bird - drone carrier, carries 80 MQ-101s
• MQ-101 - supports the Arsenal Bird
• Delivery drone
• C-130 Hercules - diversion
• F/A-18F Super Hornet - attack and escort
• Su-35S Flanker-E - attack
• ADFX-10 - attack
• ADF-11F Raven - attack
• Weapon UAV - laser attack and ADF-11F support
• ADF-11 - attack
• Barrier drone - supports the Alicorn

Gallery

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  The UAV-45 seen in Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation

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  An MQ-90 Quox firing a laser in Ace Combat Infinity

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  An MQ-99 seen in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

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  An MQ-101 seen in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown