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The QU-22B was fielded in the Pave Eagle program during the Southeast Asia War, also known as the Vietnam War. The QU-22B aimed to resolve some of the same issues that ACPs are solving today.
The QU-22B was created to operate in contested airspace as part of a program called Igloo White - where the Air Force dropped sensors along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. These sensors would pick up enemy activity and then broadcast them to an orbiting EC-121R, a vulnerable, 4-engine aircraft with a large crew, which then sent the signals on to a ground surveillance center. The uncrewed QU-22B was intended to replace the EC-121R, thereby saving costs and eliminating danger to aircrews.
Flashing forward to the modern day - AFRL’s further development of autonomous collaborative platforms is solving some of the same problems that the QU-22B tried to solve during the Southeast Asia War.
Air Force Historian, Jeff Duford, joins the AFRL “Discovery to Delivery” video series to uncover the historic scope and role of AFRL’s critical research, which delivers today’s warfighting capabilities.
| Date Taken: | 01.01.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 01.16.2026 09:54 |
| Category: | Video Productions |
| Video ID: | 992282 |
| VIRIN: | 260101-O-NQ323-8144 |
| Filename: | DOD_111469204 |
| Length: | 00:01:48 |
| Location: | US |
| Downloads: | 4 |
| High-Res. Downloads: | 4 |
This work, QU-22B | AFRL Discover to Delivery, by Keith C Lewis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
