45/2023: UAVs since Origin to Future
An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance. These drones carry aircraft ordnance such as missiles, ATGMs, and/or bombs in hardpoints for drone strikes. These drones are usually under real-time human control, with varying levels of autonomy. Unlike unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance aerial vehicles, UCAVs are used for both drone strikes and battlefield intelligence. The concept of the combat drone was first explored by Lee De Forest and U. A. Sanabria in a 1940 publication of Popular Mechanics. John Stuart Foster Jr., a nuclear physicist and former head of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, developed the modern military drone, which has been used for real-time surveillance, electronic warfare, and decoys. The first UAV war was the first Persian Gulf War, and global militaries have invested widely in the domestic development of combat UAVs. The first "kill...