The Tadiran Mastiff is a battlefield
UAV
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...
built by
Tadiran Electronic Industries
Elisra Group is an Israeli manufacturer of high-tech electronic devices, mainly but not exclusively for military use. It makes equipment for electronic communication and surveillance, missile tracking and controlling systems, radar and lidar e ...
, regarded by some military historians as the world's first modern military drone.
[The ''Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History:
A Political, Social, and Military History'', ABC-CLIO, 12 May 2008, by Spencer C. Tucker, Priscilla Mary Roberts, page 1054-55 ISBN]
Design and development
It first flew in 1973. It featured a data-link system and miniaturized electronics that fed live and high-resolution video coverage of the targeted area to operators. It is thus seen by some as the first modern surveillance UAV.
The combination of its long flight endurance of over 7 hours and real-time video streaming gave Israeli forces unprecedented depth of coverage, speed of information delivery and on-station surveillance time.
As a result of the
1973 Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egy ...
the
Israeli Defence Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...
came with an operational requirement to give the field commanders the ability to look "over the hill". The first operational requirements called for a vehicle that would be able to carry a 10 kg payload to ranges of 30–50 km.
Tadiran started developing the Mastiff Mini RPV (Remote Piloted Vehicle) after being approached by a group of entrepreneurs who were looking for Tadiran to provide the Mastiff radio command.
Three generations of the Mastiff developed by Tadiran were in operational use by the IDF performing numerous operational missions, the most well known of them was flown during the first
Lebanon war when
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
was caught by the Mastiff video camera.
[http://www.tutorgig.info/Mastiff+Bat_es.html]
Previous Operators
Israel Army
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branc ...
Republic of Singapore Air Force
The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is the aerial service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for controlling and defending the airspace of the country, and providing air support to the Army and Navy. It was establish ...
Specifications
See also
References
External links
{{commons category, Tadiran Mastiff
Israeli UAVs: Mastiff, Scout, and Searcher series
1970s Israeli military reconnaissance aircraft
Unmanned military aircraft of Israel