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1980s

Pioneer (Israel)

Pioneer (Israel)
Israel built the Pioneer UAV in the late 1980s. After witnessing Israel's myriad successes with light UAVs, the U.S. Navy, Marines, and Army immediately acquired more than 20 of the new Pioneers, which became the first small, inexpensive UAVs in the modern American military forces. The rocket-boosted Pioneer takes off from a makeshift runway on land or carrier flight decks at sea.

Used for surveillance in the Gulf War, where they flew a total of 533 sorties, and later in Bosnia, Pioneer UAVs are still used today both in Israel and in the U.S. Pioneer has proven particularly effective in working with the U.S. Air Force's Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar Systems to confirm high-priority mobile targets detected by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) from other aircraft. (For more on SAR, see Imaging With Radar.) During the Gulf War, Iraqi soldiers actually surrendered to a Pioneer, knowing that after it spied them, gunfire was imminent.

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