Tadiran Mastiff

The Tadiran Mastiff is a battlefield unmanned aerial vehicle produced by Israel’s Tadiran Electronic Industries. Some military historians consider it the first modern surveillance drone used by armed forces.

The Mastiff first flew in 1973. It carried a data-link system and compact electronics that sent live, high-resolution video of the target area back to operators. This combination of real-time video and a flight endurance exceeding seven hours gave Israeli forces deeper coverage, faster intelligence, and longer on-station surveillance than before.

Its engine was a German-made Limbach Flugmotoren two-cylinder, two-stroke motor, driving a two-blade pusher propeller built by Propeller Engineering & Duplicating, Inc. of San Clemente, California.

After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Israeli Defence Forces required a way for field commanders to see “over the hill.” The needed vehicle had to carry a 10 kg payload over distances of 30 to 50 km. Tadiran began developing the Mastiff Mini Remote Piloted Vehicle after a group of entrepreneurs approached the company to supply the Mastiff’s radio command system.

The program was also sold to the United States Navy, which deployed the Mastiff aboard aircraft carriers and at Camp Talega in Southern California. The Marine Corps’ VMUT-2 squadron used it from 1984 to 1986.

Three generations of the Mastiff served operationally with the IDF. Among many missions, the most famous occurred during the first Lebanon war, when a Mastiff’s video camera captured Yasser Arafat.

Previous operators include the Israel Army, the Republic of Singapore Air Force, and the United States Navy.