AAI RQ-2A Pioneer — first UAV to accept a military surrender

About as long as a car with a unit cost of $850,000 the Pioneer is a remarkable UAV design of the 1980s. Slower and more vulnerable by today’s standards the Pioneer is built from a mix of modern and natural materials and the 26 hp (19.4kW) engine carried aloft a 100 pound (45.5kg) payload — either optical sensors or chemical sensors. The nose wheel does not caster so Pioneers were launched by expendable rocket from a rail, or catapult, with landing typically into a net or with the aid of an arrestor cable on a runway.

The U.S. Navy originate the RQ-2A Pioneer program but the vehicles soon became operational with the U.S. Marine Corps as well as the U.S. Army. This Pioneer — No. 159 — is historic. It  is the UAV to which Iraqi military personnel announced their surrender on Faylaka Island during the first Gulf War — history’s first instance of a military surrender to a robot. The aircraft was being used for damage assessment at the time after a battleship gunnery mission.

Launched by rocket assist (shipboard), by catapult, or from a runway, the Pioneer recovers into a net (shipboard) or with arresting gear after flying up to 5 hours with a 75-pound (34 kg) payload. It flies with a gimbaled EO/IR sensor, relaying analog video in real time via a C-band line-of-sight (LOS) data link. Since 1991, Pioneer has flown reconnaissance missions during the Persian Gulf, Somalia (UNOSOM II), Bosnia, Kosovoand Iraq conflicts. In 2005, the Navy operated two Pioneer systems (one for training) and the Marines operated two, each with five or more aircraft. It is also operated by Israel and the Republic of Singapore Air Force. In 2007 Pioneer was retired by the US Navy and was replaced by the Shadow UAV.