In Britain at the end of the Second World War, light, remotely controlled aircraft were baptised ‘drones’, as they made a noise rather similar to that of the bumblebee. Apart from their role as airborne targets, the term defines pilotless aircraft used for surveillance, reconnaissance or even attack. For the purposes of this article, we shall use the more modern term Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

Ever since Cold War days, the United States has been discreetly developing UAVs as a tool of strategic superiority and capability rupture, permitting the surveillance and attack of a potential enemy with a minimum of risk. This superiority has been acquired due to technological innovation. At the same time Israel has developed for its own needs a family of short- and medium-range UAVs for tactical use, using direct data transmission.

Several UAV systems have followed each other in French service: the Aerospatiale R 20 fast drone of 1970; the fast CL 89 in 1980; the slow Mart I in 1991, used in Iraq ; the fast CL 289 in 1993 (also operated by Germany); and the slow Crécerelle in 1995.