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Old 10-08-2020, 05:39 PM
Vespers War Vespers War is offline
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Lightning Bugs would probably return to use. Ryan Firebees were modified and used in the 60s and 70s with cameras to provide aerial recon, with Lightning Bug being their designation. In the late 90s, Teledyne Ryan converted a pair of Firebees to an updated Lightning Bug standard providing real-time imagery for Green Flag exercises in Nevada. Firebees are still in use today, so they'd be available for conversion.

Predator entered service in 1995, so the early RQ (unarmed) versions of it would likely exist in small numbers in the Twilight era. The CIA would have its predecessor, the GNAT 750.

The RQ-2 Pioneer drones launched from Iowa-class battleships during the Gulf War remained in service until 2007, so they'd still be around.

The FQM-151 Pointer is the "first generation Raven" that swaghauler mentioned in his Raven entry. They were first acquired in 1990 and still in use in the early 2000s (not sure if they're all retired yet). It's a 9 pound drone with an hour of flight time and a fixed-forward camera.

Slightly larger is the BQM-147 Exdrone (Expendable Drone). It served in Desert Storm and is still in use. It's around 90 pounds with 2.5 hours of endurance.

S-TEC (now DRS Unmanned Systems) started building their Sentry in the mid-80s. It's a 240 pound drone with 8 hours of endurance and a 60 pound payload.
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