UAV in Call of Duty: What It Shows and What Beats It

A UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) is the basic reconnaissance killstreak: it sends a drone over the map and shows enemy positions as red dots on your team's minimap. It has been in the series since Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and in 2026 it appears in Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer, Black Ops 7 multiplayer and Warzone, each with different cost rules.

UAV by game

Game	Type	Cost / unlock	Notes
Modern Warfare 4	Killstreak	5 kills, or 4 with Hardline; level 4	Health raised from 100 to 150 for launch
Black Ops 7 multiplayer	Scorestreak	500 score; level 11	Overclocks: Dispatcher (cheaper) and Counter Tech (flare against the first lock-on)
Warzone	Killstreak item	Buy Station price $8,000 since 4 February 2026; in Ranked Play only from Buy Stations	UAV towers are a separate map object

Modern Warfare 4 detail comes from the October 2026 launch notes: all killstreak costs were raised during the beta, the UAV is 5 kills at launch, and its health was raised from 100 to 150 after the second beta weekend had cut it by 60%, because players found it too easy to shoot down. The level 4 unlock is from Activision's 19 October 2026 loadout blog, which still lists the pre-tuning cost of 4 kills. Modern Warfare 4 also uses a Smart Streak meter, where objective play such as capturing a Domination flag adds to the streak progress, so a UAV can arrive without a kill.

The Black Ops 7 cost and level are wiki figures. Treat the unlock levels as approximate, since guide sites do not agree on every number.

How a UAV is used and countered

• Calling it: earn it, equip it in the class (Modern Warfare 4 lets you attach streaks to individual multiplayer loadouts), and activate it. The red dots show to your team only.
• Shooting it down: a UAV is a physical target with health, which is why its health value matters. Destroying it removes the information for the team that called it.
• Counter UAV: a separate killstreak that scrambles the opponents' minimap. Warzone's Counter UAV received health raised from 300 to 500 on 25 February 2026, and from 30 September 2026 it shows a message if it disrupts enemies when it activates.
• Ghost and Cold-Blooded: perks that hide you from a UAV or from killstreak targeting. See the Ghost perk page and the Cold-Blooded page. The Advanced UAV is the version designed to override them in some games.

UAV in Warzone, 2026

Raven Software's notes show four UAV-related themes this year:

1. Price and purchase rule: on 4 February 2026 the Buy Station UAV went from $6,000 to $8,000, and the 3 June 2026 Season 04 notes for Ranked Play state that UAVs have to be bought at Buy Stations, adding Counter UAVs to ground loot for counterplay.
2. Radius: on 28 August 2026 the UAV radius on Avalon was raised by 15% and the Counter UAV radius by 11%, to suit the size of Battle Royale there.
3. Squad intel: from the Season 03 launch on 31 March 2026, activating a UAV with the Hunter perk reveals enemy heading direction to squadmates.
4. Stacking: on 4 February 2026 Raven raised the number of combined UAVs needed for a map-wide Advanced UAV to four.

UAV towers, the capturable structures that give a UAV effect, had their price lowered from $2,000 to $1,250 in the Clash limited-time mode on 10 June 2026. In Iron Gauntlet, the Buy Station UAV was listed at $10,000 on 3 March 2026.

Competitive status

The Call of Duty League's official Black Ops 7 competitive settings (callofdutyleague.com, restricted-items list last published on 23 April 2026) list UAV and Counter UAV among restricted streaks. In league matches teams therefore gather information by callouts, not by a UAV. The 2027 season on Modern Warfare 4 begins on 4 December 2026, and on 2 November 2026 the league had not yet published Modern Warfare 4 settings.

Related terms

• Advanced UAV: the live-direction version.
• Care Package: a crate that often contains a UAV.
• Perks glossary: perks that hide you from scans.
• Warzone, DMZ and contracts glossary: information perks and killstreaks.

FAQ

What does a UAV show?

Enemy positions on your team's minimap as red dots. It does not show direction; that is the Advanced UAV.

How many kills for a UAV in Modern Warfare 4?

5 kills, or 4 with the Hardline perk, according to the launch notes. Objective actions also add to the meter.

Can you shoot down a UAV?

Yes. It is a target with health, and Modern Warfare 4 set that to 150 at launch.

Is the UAV allowed in the Call of Duty League?

Not in the Black Ops 7 ruleset for the 2026 season, where UAV and Counter UAV were restricted.