Читать книгу Introduction to UAV Systems - Mohammad H. Sadraey - Страница 20

The US Navy and Marine Corps entered the UAV arena in 1985 by purchasing the Mazlat/Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) and AAI Pioneer system, which suffered considerable growing pains but still remains in service. However, Congress by this time became restless and demanded that a joint project office (JPO) be formed so that commonality and interoperability among the services would be maximized. The JPO was put under the administrative control of the Department of the Navy. This office has developed a master plan that not only defines the missions but also describes the desirable features for each kind of system needed by the services. Some elements of this plan will be discussed in Chapter 2 in the section called “Classes of UAV Systems.”

The US Air Force was initially reluctant to embrace UAVs, notwithstanding their wealth of experience with target‐drone unmanned aircraft. However, this attitude changed significantly during the 1990s and the Air Force not only has been very active in developing and using UAVs for a variety of purposes but also has been the most active of the four US services in attempting to take control of all UAV programs and assets within the US military.