Quote:
Originally Posted by Vespers War
The RQ-2 (which entered service 9 years before the RQ-1) was common enough that during the first Gulf War at least one was in the air for the entirety of the war. It was originally a gunnery spotter, but evolved into reconnaissance and surveillance roles. With its IR camera it was used to patrol the border to locate troop concentrations, and it also collected map data for Tomahawks to use.
On the smaller end of Desert Storm-era drones were the Exdrone (now BQM-147 Dragon) and the FQM-151 Pointer, which was very short-ranged but also easily man-portable at just 9 pounds of weight. The Pointer would continue to see use up through the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
By the mid-90s, there were the handful of RQ-5 Hunters and the introduction of the Predator. 1998 saw the RQ-4 Global Hawk enter service, selected over the RQ-3 Dark Star because range and payload were picked over stealth.
For non-American drones, I know of a pair that were used in the first Gulf War - Canada's Canadair CL-89 (used as the Midge by the British) and France's Altec MART.
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And given the war start you can bet the Global Hawk would have had its development and deployment pushed forward - meaning it would have probably been in service in 1996-1997 before the TDM.
FYI if we are going to discuss drones they should be in a different thread.