SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN THE AIR FORCE – AFASES 2022 200 A BRIEF HISTORY OF UAVs IN THE 1970s Vasile PRISACARIU “Henri Coandă” Air Force Academy ,Brașov, Romania (prisacariu.vasile@afahc.ro) DOI: 10.19062/2247-3173.2022.23.28 Abstract: The technological development of the UAV domain has produced a conceptual revolution in the design, architecture and operation of these technical systems. The evolution of unmanned aerial systems has followed the same technological curve as manned aircraft and the continuous technological development of the UAV field has produced a conceptual revolution in the design, architecture and operation of these technical systems. After the 1970s, on the one hand, a series of modernizations of the launch-recovery systems of the air vectors took place and on the other hand, the development of miniaturized classes of UAVs. The article summarizes information about the most relevant historical landmarks regarding the experimental and operational technological achievements of the 1970s and 1980s. Keywords: UAV history, CL-227 Sentinel, Tadiran Mastiff, Ryan 147, performances aircraft Acronims C2/C3 Command, control / communication HALE High altitude long endurance HIMAT Highly Maneuverable Aircraft Technology JATO Jet-assisted take-off MAV Micro/miniature aerial vehicles NAV Nano aerial vehicles PAV Pico aerial vehicles RPA/H Remotely piloted aircraft/ helicopter RPV Remotely piloted vehicle SD Smart dusts (drone miniaturization) SIGINT Signal inteligence UCAS Unmanned combat aerial vehicles VTOL Vertical take-off μUAV Micro unmanned aerial vehicles C4ISR Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4) Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) ISTAR intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance MBLE Manufacture Belge De Lampes Et De Matériel Electronique 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1.Initial considerations The bibliographic study carried out in this paper includes chronological and state- owned approaches, rather than temporal aspects of the major conflicts that began or took place during the 1970s, such as the Yom Kippur War or the Vietnam War. The analyzed period includes a series of projects on unmanned aircraft in different technological and operational stages (life cycle), the following paragraphs containing the most relevant constructive examples. The chronological approach for the period 1970-1980 regarding unmanned aircraft includes mainly state topics in alphabetical order. The exemplified producers being: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Israel, USA, USSR and UAVs made in multinational productions. 1.2. Characterization of unmanned aircraft from 1970-1980 The standards used for unmanned aerial vehicle technologies have reached the level of maturity required for functional optimizations imposed by both end-user requirements