Modern UAS Development: 1960 – Present
The Vietnam War marked a turning point for UAS development to support a variety of
operations during the war. “1,016 AQM-34 Lightning Bugs and Firebees flew 3,435 sorties
during which 544 were lost … for an overall mission success rate of over 84 percent” (Newcome
2004, 86). The ubiquity of the drones throughout the war and their various missions, from air
defense and communication intelligence to leaflet dropping, solidified the functions of UASs in a
modern military arsenal. High altitude and vertical lift-off drones were also developed during
Vietnam but, typically, interest waned after the war and foreign UAV programs soon became
global leaders. No country developed and employed UAV technology more prolifically than
Israel which began research in 1970 and continued at a fervid pace (Newcome 2004, 83 – 91).
Based initially on a Firebee, the rapidly expanding Israeli aviation industry developed a
number of decoys and observational drones that operated heavily in a region mired in political
turmoil and war. During Operation Peace in 1982, aircraft over the Syrian-occupied area of
Lebanon destroyed surface-to-air missile batteries by deploying unmanned decoys that the
Syrians attacked, wasting resources and divulging the locations of the batteries for targeting by
Israeli fighters (Sanders 2003). In the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s, the United States renewed its
interest in unmanned aerial systems after observing that “in both Lebanon and Syria, Israel was
among the first nations to employ such vehicles regularly for reconnaissance in combat,
demonstrating that when used effectively they can help achieve combat objectives” (Sanders
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2003). As a close ally, the U.S. and Israel embarked on a program of joint development that
ushered in the new age of unmanned aviation.