BQM-147 Dragon

The BAI Aerosystems (BAIA) BQM-147 Dragon unmanned aerial vehicle is a tactical battlefield UAV operated by the US Marine Corps.

Development

The Dragon began life in 1986, when the US Marines Corps contracted with the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), an offshoot of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, that works on government technology development contracts, to build a small piston-powered UAV as an "expendable jammer" for battlefield electronics warfare. The program was logically named "ExJam". BAI Aerosystems was a subcontractor to APL and provided airframe parts.

"Creeping featurism" infected the program as the Marines considered more applications for the little drone, and in 1987 the program was given the new name of BQM-147A "Expendable Drone" or "Exdrone". However, APL wasn't able to meet the schedule requested by the Marines for fielding the Exdrone, and so the program was passed on to BAI Aerosystems, with the Navy assisting by developing a video imaging system for tactical reconnaissance.