IAI Mastiff
Mini-UAV pioneer: developed by Tadiran in parallel with the Scout, one of the world's first operational drones to transmit live video and direct artillery fire.
IAI Mastiff
Mini-UAV pioneer: developed by Tadiran in parallel with the Scout, one of the world's first operational drones to transmit live video and direct artillery fire.
Community
Data trust
- Reliability
- Unverified
- Sources
- Sources pending review
Identity
- Designation
- IAI Mastiff
- Alias
- Tadiran Mastiff
- Manufacturer
- Tadiran / IAI
- Country
- Israel
- Year
- 1975
- Category
- ISR (Reconnaissance)
- Class
- Small (< 25 kg)
- Status
- Historic
Performance
- Range
- 75 km
- Endurance
- 7.5 h
- Top speed
- 150 km/h
- Service ceiling
- 4,500 m
- Propulsion
- Pistone 2T, 22 hp, elica spintore
Physical characteristics
- MTOW
- 138 kg
- Payload
- 37 kg
Onboard systems
- Sensors
- Telecamera TV stabilizzata
- Datalink / control
- Datalink LOS analogico
- Launch
- Pista, catapulta o rampa
- Recovery
- Pista o rete d'arresto
Combat use
- ▸Operation Litani, southern Lebanon (1978)
- ▸1982 Lebanon War — target designation for artillery and Navy
- ▸US-Israel technology transfer program (1984-1986)
Tags
Main operators
History
Fielded by the IDF in 1975, the Mastiff was used in Lebanon from 1978 and became the first UAV to direct live naval and artillery fire.
Lessons from Mastiff and Scout led the US Navy to procure a jointly-developed AAI/IAI variant, the Pioneer, fielded in 1986.
The Mastiff was developed by Tadiran Electronic Industries as a low-cost dual-use alternative after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Israel lost dozens of manned aircraft to Egyptian SAM batteries.
In the United States the Mastiff experience was tapped directly by the Marine Corps, which leased airframes for trials in Maryland before launching the Pioneer program — the first operational UAV technology transfer between Israel and the US.
Retired from Israeli service in the 1990s, several Mastiffs were donated to aviation museums and the aircraft is now recognized as a milestone in military drone history, the ancestor of every modern tactical UAV for reconnaissance and artillery fire correction.