{"id":32230,"date":"2026-07-14T17:59:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/32230\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T17:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T17:59:50","slug":"italy-assigns-mq-31a-designation-to-aerovironments-jump-20-drone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/32230\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy Assigns MQ-31A Designation to AeroVironment&#8217;s JUMP 20 Drone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/dronefront.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#13;<br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/WhatsAppVideo2026-05-15at09.23.58.gif\" alt=\"The Drone Front\" width=\"1280\" height=\"539\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Italy\u2019s Ministry of Defence has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avinc.com\/2026\/07\/13\/av-receives-mq-31a-designation-from-italian-ministry-of-defence-mod\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">assigned<\/a> the MQ-31A military designation to AeroVironment\u2019s JUMP 20 unmanned aircraft system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The designation identifies the platform as an officially adopted military system within the Italian armed forces, confirming that it has met the Ministry of Defence\u2019s requirements for operational service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was issued by Italy\u2019s Directorate of Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness and follows <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2025\/04\/24\/italy-jump-drones-aerovironment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">a $46.6-million, five-year contract<\/a> awarded to AeroVironment in April last year to deliver JUMP 20 systems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The contract also includes engineering, maintenance, technical support, and sustainment services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the program, the aircraft will replace the Italian Army\u2019s aging AAI RQ-7 Shadow intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drone fleet while improving interoperability with NATO forces.<\/p>\n<p>JUMP 20<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JUMP 20 is a vertical takeoff and landing fixed-wing unmanned aircraft that does not require a runway, allowing it to operate from confined or austere locations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The aircraft can remain airborne for more than 13 hours and has an operational range of 185 kilometers (115 miles).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is designed with an open system architecture that supports more than 70 interchangeable payloads for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, communications, and other battlefield tasks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The system can also carry modular payloads weighing up to 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms), allowing new sensors or communication systems to be integrated without redesigning the aircraft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JUMP 20 is also being adopted by several other NATO members, including Denmark, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Italy\u2019s Ministry of Defence has assigned the MQ-31A military designation to AeroVironment\u2019s JUMP 20 unmanned aircraft&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21957,1356,5,22143],"class_list":["post-32230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-aerovironment","tag-drones","tag-italy","tag-jump-20-drone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}