UAVs in the Twilight war

[95th Rifleman]

America pioneered UAV use back in Vietnam, flying nearly 3500 missions for the loss of (I think) around 500 birds. I believe the Israelis used them in the early 80's aswell, against lebanon.

America didn't start arming Predators till 2001 but the basic airframe was available in the mid 90's, so I'm wondering as casualties amongst the conventional air forces increased, to what extent would UAVs come into use during the twilight war?

Made a brief list of what UAVs where in service during the last half of the 90's that could be weaponised. I'm pretty sure Germany had some UAVs but don't know details for them. The Soviet UAVs where fairly primitive but capable platforms.

USA: Predator
USSR: TU-141, Pchela
UK: BAE Phoenix

[simonmark6]

Have you checked out Paul's UAV entries? I was reading them on Sunday and was very interested. They might have some of the gen you need.

[HorseSoldier]

I don't think you'd see UAVs evolve the way they have in real life in the Twilight War -- the air defense, air to air and electronic warfare environments, at least in Central Europe, are just too fierce in combination to make it work well.

They'd work much better on the economy of force/sideshow fronts like the Middle East, but with the continued threat of the 3rd Shock Army et al running hell bent for leather for the English Channel, $$$ to support secondary projects is questionable.

[Legbreaker]

I'm in agreement with HS there. Some limited use would be made of them, but nothing like we've seen IRL.
AA in Europe was supposed to be rather ferocious and with limited space in small UAVs, countermeasures would be scarce to non-existant. Any high flying UAV would be fair game, while the low fliers would be suceptible to anyone with an AK and a few spare mags.

[95th Rifleman]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

I'm in agreement with HS there. Some limited use would be made of them, but nothing like we've seen IRL.
AA in Europe was supposed to be rather ferocious and with limited space in small UAVs, countermeasures would be scarce to non-existant. Any high flying UAV would be fair game, while the low fliers would be suceptible to anyone with an AK and a few spare mags.

That is a good point, the Soviet ADA is just evil. It's one of the few technologies that kept pace with the west with such beasts as the Tunguska watching over Soviet forces.