UAVs play an important role since the Vietnam War, the R&D on UAVs skyrocketed in the 70s, and Germany even worked in a modern kamikaze drone in the 80s. Why did it take so long for the public and pop-military fags to pay attention to drone warfare?
>>65007454>UAVs play an important role since the Vietnam WarBoth the USN and USAAC operated drones in WW2. JFKs brother was killed flying a UAV ironically
>>65007454because before your "modern" MALE drones starting with the MQ-1 they were mostly either target drones or basically spyplanes.TALDs and other decoys are probably the most interesting UAV of the era(at least for me).And yes the dornier anti radar drone would have fucked the warsaw pact so hard they would lose all air defense if the drone would have been spammed.
>>65007454OP is correct. The Ryan Aeronautical Lightning Bug series, in dozens of modifications and iterations, performed SEAD, reconnaissance, EW, ELINT and many other missions. By the early seventies air-to-ground interdiction variants were capable of launching an AGM-65 missile.On another machine I have hundreds of pics
>>65009513>On another machine I have hundreds of picsBumping for the chance of seeing 100's of Ryan aeronautical drone pictures, my favourite UAV. In another timeline we could have seen BGM-34s armed with the maverick hunting down Iraqi tanks or performing attacks on Iraqi sam sites.Imagine the absolute shock seeing the US having armed aerial drones in 1991 and deploying them into combat.
>>65012187BGM-34 was canceled due to a change in NATO strategic stance late 1970s and also that the flight/weapons tests of the system showed it required extensive technical and logistic upgrades for adequate performance in northern Europe severe weather conditions, and the aerial recovery helicopters would be vulnerable in the Warsaw Pact multiple-threat environment.>IraqThere were no BGM-34s ever procured, and the Ryan Model 147 AQM-34 was dead after the 1970s but modified BQM-34 Firebees were used in desert storm 1991 as EW chaff dispensers.
>>65012230>BGM-34 was canceled>There were no BGM-34s ever procuredYeah, hence the "In another timeline" comment .>BQM-34 Firebees were used in desert storm 1991 as EW chaff dispensersThat was in 2003. The BQM-74C was the drone used in desert storm as a decoy to draw Iraqi sam operators attention while SEAD aircraft targeted them. Do you by any chance know if a similar strategy was planned to be used against the warsaw pact? Launch a large number of ground launched target drones, have them fly into warsaw pact territory to draw attention from sam sites, interceptors etc ? The Israelis showed the effectivness of using drones as decoys in 1982 so I wonder if NATO was planning to do the same thing against the warsaw pact if the cold war turned hot.
because cameras became cheap so we can get a first person presentation of the battlefield in never before seen eyes of journalist presentation.We are a very image based societyNobody cares about reports, spreadsheets let alone military shit until its captured in 4k and released periodically through official military channelsIts kinda mind boggling how much strikes are telegraphed through public channels by the government themselves. Especially those capturing war crimes.
>>65012388(correct thanks for catching BQM-34 in 2003 iraq)AQM-34 was extensively used in southease Asia as air defense decoys. Compass Bin Combat Angel, starting with the -34G and H these carried ALE-2 chaff dispenser pods.As mentioned, after the 1970s all of the USAF/NATO combat drone programs were defunded. The 1960s southeast Asia Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug projects were made possible by National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) funding during the cold war/Vietnam war era. After 1973 when that funding dried up, the mid-70s BGM-34/related projects were U.S. Air Force tech demonstrator experiments, mostly funded by Teledyne Ryan itself in bidding for adoption in the USAF Pave Strike air-to-surface precision guided munitions of that era.Israel had begun using a modified version of the ground-launched AQM-34L southeast Asia recon drone during the '73 Yom Kippur war, this was directly sold to Israel by Teledyne Ryan as the Ryan Model 124I. Those were retired from IDF in 1990s. (I'm not aware of the service record of the basic BQM-34A Firebee target drone in IDF but presumably they've had those and are easily modified as decoys which was one of their original design missions. Same as they had been with USAF from the late 1950s through 1980s)
Compass Arrow test flight circa 1971DC-130E
>>65007454>Why did it take so long for the public and pop-military fags to pay attention to drone warfare?Its just boring and gay. Like people accepted that drones were a critical component of ISR way back in the mid 2000s, and using them as offensive weapons was mainstream by the Obama era, but within the public consciousness they were always a peripheral thing to supplement human blood and sweat; like a killstreak in videogames or a robot sidekick in action movies. Because without the human element to tie it all together, regardless of its actual merit or strategic value, its all lame and disposable and nobody gives a shit.
what about Compass Seethe?
>>65013258It worked and was technically better then the competitor (Boeing YQM-94 and it was cheaper) but still got cancelled, something about problems in fitting/devloping spy stuff for it but that part seems to be a cope and the truth may simply be that the air force did not like it.
>>65007454
>>65013269After a couple decades the RQ-4 arrived which is a larger size, more capable descendent of the Compass Cope program. RQ-4 with its larger airframe (for more payloads) is the permanent-on-station high altitude loiter UAV surveillance platform HALE that USAF always had wanted.Yes the Teledyne Ryan YQM-98A R-Tern was the better of the two program competitors
>>65013258>what about Compass Seethe?Thrown into the compass bin.
>>65007454That's a lot of V-1s
>>65014826Quite different. Powerplant, for one
>>65009513I'm also confused as to why they seem to get no attention. They even look cool.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFYKTICyxgo
>>65017062In my opinion and observation the 147 series is the most fascinating and groundbreaking cold war aeronautics story after the Lockheed A-12>picYes the AQM-34Q/R Compass Bin Combat Dawn long range high altitude SIGINT drones were neatEven neater was the China-overflight AQM-91 (pic upthread, on DC-130E) Firefly aka Ryan Model 154 Compass Arrow that had a stealth planform airframe, powered by the GE YJ97 4,000 lb class turbojet.
>>65012216>>65012222It had interchangeable nose modules with LLLTV and laser designator
As mentioned the 1960s Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug projects, most of OP picrel were made possible by National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) funding during the cold war/Vietnam era, along with Teledyne Ryan contractor field support during that decade. It was a testbed proving ground in combat operations for many missions and concepts, RPV (remotely piloted vehicle) technologies that had never been tried before.Included overflights of North Vietnam, North Korea, and communist China. AQM-91 Compass Arrow, or Ryan Model 154 Firefly was specifically designed as a low observable 'stealth' high altitude drone, larger and with a new more powerful engine than the AQM-34 Lightning Bug series, for overflight of China but the program was canceled by the Nixon administration (so was the Lockheed D-21 hypersonic drone, also a China overflight project)Low, medium and high altitude reconnaissance variants of the 147 series were sequentially tested and improved in combat sorties. Most were launched from DC-130 carrier aircraft but a few variants such as the Navy's 147SK could be launched from a ship using solid rocket booster as with the BQM-34 Firebee target.None of these drones had landing gear so an integral part of their deployment was recovery helicopters for mid-air retrieval. The drones could float briefly in water if they weren't snatched midair but recovery crews had to be on scene to prevent loss of the airframe. They also developed an inflatable cushion to protect the drones from ground impact damage if they parachuted to zero altitude, but again they were designed to be recovered mid-air by helicopter. This necessity was one of the technical aspects that caused them to be passed over as a system in the late 1970s when USAF was considering them for northern Europe deployment.
