The Lockheed Martin RQ-3A was a high stealth high altitude unpiloted reconnaissance vehicle made in the United States in the 1990s. It did not enter production due to several problems including poor stability.

The RQ-3 was designed as a high altitude unpiloted reconnaissance vehicle.

It’s design included stealth capability so it could fly undetected in hostile airspace and it was equipped with either radar or optical sensors and could send digital information to satellites while in flight.

The first one flew on 29 March 1996 but crashed on its second flight due to instability problems.

A more stable RQ-3A was then developed and first flew on 29 June 1998. However, the project was cancelled in January 1999 after the RQ-3A had made five flights.

A further two had been completed but never flew.

The project was cancelled due to stability problems, an inability to meet target specifications and preference given to developing the bigger RQ-4 Global Hawk.

This model represents the first RQ-3A.

Unicraft 1/72 kit completed by Leigh Edmonds in October 2016.