The Pioneers undertook a range of missions. The army would fly them along the routes to be taken by Apache helicopters; the pilots would watch the live video, then climb into their helicopters and take off. The navy used them to spot targets for the 16-inch battleship guns, then correct their fire.
During one such mission, forty Iraqi soldiers were seen coming out of a bunker and waving white cloths at a Pioneer in an attempt to surrender to it.
This was the first time that humans had surrendered to a machine.
About fifty-five to sixty Exdrone UAVs were also used by the marines in the Gulf. These were television-equipped expendable drones. The marines used them to observe minefields and barriers in southern Kuwait City. When their video showed that the Iraqis had abandoned their positions, the marines moved forward a full day and a half earlier than originally planned.[612]
In each of these cases, the UAVs were able to provide real-time intelligence directly to the units that needed it. Following the Gulf War, interest within the air force grew in the development of long-range UAV systems that could keep watch on a specific area day and night. This could do much to clear up the shortcomings in reconnaissance that the war had made apparent. In the years following the Gulf War, a new trouble spot appeared that would lead to operation of such a UAV. A descendant of the Amber, it was called the GNAT-750.
Work on the GNAT-750 project had actually begun at Leading Systems in 1988. It was designed for export to friendly countries. The GNAT-750 eliminated several features that were not needed by non-U.S. users and had a simplified structure and lower cost than the Amber.[613]
The fuselage was 16.4 feet long and had sloping sides for a low RCS.
The GNAT-750's long and narrow straight wings spanned 35.3 feet. Like Amber, the GNAT-750 had an inverted V-shaped tail, the same sixty-five-horsepower engine, and took off and landed on a spindly tricycle landing gear. Mounted under the nose was a "skyball"; a movable turret that could carry a stabilized forward-looking infrared system, a daylight television camera, and a low-light-level television camera. In all, 132 pounds of payload could be carried in the nose and 330 pounds under the wing. The GNAT-750 could fly for forty-eight hours continuously, giving it a maximum radius of 1,512 nautical miles. It could also fly out to a target area 1,080 nautical miles away, then remain on station for twelve hours before having to return.[614]
Compared to the Amber, the GNAT-750 was larger, lighter, had a heavier payload, and a ten-hour greater endurance. Despite this, when one sees the GNAT-750, the first impression is of a model airplane. (Admittedly, a big model airplane.) Perhaps it is the wooden prop at the rear of the plane. As with Amber, the goal is a low-cost, long-duration UAV.
The prototype GNAT-750 made its first flight in the summer of 1989, which began a series of successful test flights. The first eight GNAT-750s were scheduled to start production in December 1989.[615] Despite this success, the confusion and technical problems with the UAV program continued.
The JPO seemed unable to bring order to the situation. Leading Systems was also on the verge of bankruptcy. In 1990, its assets were bought out by General Atomics; this included the Amber and GNAT-750 projects.
General Atomics continued development of the GNAT-750. In 1992, a prototype made a continuous flight of over forty hours at El Mirage, reaching altitudes of over 25,000 feet. General Atomics then won a contract from the Turkish government to supply it with GNAT-750s; deliveries began by the end of 1993.[616]
In the summer of 1993, world events again spurred interest in UAVs. The Joint Chiefs of Staff requested immediate development of a UAV for use over Bosnia and Serbia. Following the end of Communist rule in Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia had disintegrated into a barbaric civil war between Serbs and Moslems. It was marked by ethnic cleansing — wanton killing, torture, and starvation. The UAV was to keep track of the warring factions' troop movements, artillery emplacements, and antiaircraft weapons, in support of UN peacekeeping forces.
Pentagon acquisition chief John Deutch endorsed the recommendation and called for the development of a UAV that could fly 500 nautical miles, then remain on station for twenty-four hours or more; carry a 400- to 500-pound payload; fly at 15,000 to 25,000 feet; and be equipped with a combination electro-optical, infrared and/or radar system.[617]
It was decided to use the GNAT-750. It would be rapidly modified for the mission, then equipped with an off-the-shelf sensor package. The GNAT-750 was available for export; if one was lost, no sensitive technology would be compromised.[618] And it was designed, as the sales brochure put it, with "sensitive" and "high-risk missions" in mind.[619] The images would be transmitted to local UN commanders via a relay aircraft. Two GNAT-750s would be built for the program. The effort would cost $5 million.
Because the situation in Bosnia was highly fluid, the GNAT-750s needed to be operational by October 1993 at the latest. A development effort with so short a time frame could only be accomplished, however, if freed of the funding and acquisition constraints of a military program. There had been a similar situation some forty years before. The solution was the same; the CIA was given control of the program.[620]
The GNAT-750 had now become a Black airplane.
By the late summer of 1993, the CIA GNAT-750 effort was under way.
The CIA acquired two GNAT-750s from General Atomics, which were then modified with the relay antennae. A large teardrop-shaped dome was added to the top of the GNAT-750 to house the data link. The flight tests were done at the El Mirage site. The CIA GNAT-750s were to be ready for operations by October 1, 1993; once operational, they were to be based in Italy.
In spite of its new Black status, the project did not go smoothly. The CIA GNAT-750 program had to face the political realities of spying in the 1990s.
Not even congressmen had been told of the U-2 overflights. In 1993, however, the autonomy of CIA Director R. James Woolsey Jr. was far less than that enjoyed by Allen Dulles in 1956, when the U-2 program was about to begin. Now it was necessary for the CIA to consult with the Defense Department and Congress on the GNAT-750 effort.
The overall UAV program itself was caught in a tug-of-war between the various factions who were soon faulting the CIA's handling of the GNAT-750 program. They objected to the CIA's unwillingness to tell others what was going on with the project. One congressional staffer complained (rather incongruously), "They tried to turn it into a secret program."[621]
Not surprisingly, word of the CIA GNAT-750 program leaked. The early details were fragmentary, with one report referring to the GNAT-750 as "an unmanned SR-71 follow-on." The image that phrase brings to mind is far from a plane with a wooden propeller.[622] But more detailed accounts were soon appearing.
Clearly, the GNAT-750 was a very different shade of Black than the U-2.
The concept of Black itself had also changed. HALSOL was classic Black — secret from start to finish. Since then, the concept had become blurred. Teal Rain was Black, yet the end result, the GNAT-750, was White.
616
General Atomics Press Release, January 21, 1994. The GNAT-750 was actually part of a family of UAVs with similar designs. The GNAT-BT
On the upper end is the GNAT-750-45, also called the 750-TE Predator. It had a 41.7-foot wingspan and was 26.7 feet long. Its payload was increased to 400 to 500 pounds. The equipment was housed in a bullet-shaped nose.
The Predator would carry a synthetic aperture radar with a resolution of one foot that would cover an 8,000-foot-wide swath from 25,000 feet. A turret under the nose would also house three electro-optical infrared sensors with a resolution of six feet. The data would be relayed to ground stations via a 30-inch-diameter satellite dish.
617
David A. Fulghum, "USAF Stresses UAVs for Recon,"
618
John D. Morrocco, "Pentagon-CIA UAV Gains New Significance,"
620
Fulghum, "USAF Stresses UAVs for Recon," 44; and David A. Fulghum and John D. Morrocco, "CIA to Deploy UAVs in Albania,"