Timeline
- 1918-1919: The U.S. Navy and Sperry Gyroscope Co. perform the first experiments on guided missiles during the last years of the First World War. (Gurney, G.: Rocket and Missile Technology; Franklin Watts, New York, 1964.)
- 1945: War-weary Germans learn of the development of the V-2, the first operational ballistic missile, in their movie newsreels (Jan. 21).
- 1950's: AIM-7 Sparrow (predecessor to the contemporary AIM-120A AMRAAM) is developped for use by the U.S. Air Force. The 1950's Sparrow model employs a target illumination technique, whereby energy reflected from the target is received by the missile and used to locate the target. This marks the beginning of "fire-and-forget" weapons systems.
- 1961-1975: During the Vietnam War the AQM-34L reconnaissance drone ("Firebee"), is used to perform day and night reconnaissance, high-altitude surveillance, electronic intelligence, and distribution of propoganda leaflets. (Siuru)
- 1961-1975: Smart bombs are employed for the first time during the Vietnam War. These are bombs that are laser guided (i.e., they operate by following a laser beam to their target).
- 1973: During the Yom Kippur War, Israel successfully employs harassment drones known as remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) to confuse enemy air defenses. (Siuru)
- 1982: RPVs are used to ferret out Syrian SA-6 missiles in Lebanon's Valley. (Siuru)
- 1983: The $600-million Strategic Computing Program (SCP) creates three applications for " 'pulling' the technology-generation process by creating carefully selected technology
interactions with challenging military applications: an autonomous land vehicle, a pilot's associate, and a battle management system. These developments explicitly connect the three armed services to further AI developments." (Beusmanns et al.).
- 1983: Tomahawk cruise missiles deployed by the U.S. Navy for first time. Tomahawk autonomously finds its way to the target by using terrain contour matching (TERCOM) system, in which actual terrain beneath missile's flight path is compared to a stored map containing information about the terrain. The missile, in a sense, navigates itself towards the target.
- March 1983: Ronald Reagan proposes implementing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a program intending to create a "leak proof shield" over the United States protecting it from ICBM's. The idea behind the system was to use sensors to detect missile launches and then to intercept the warheads while they were still in outer space.
- July 1988: With the aid of the Aegis Spy-1 radar system (a radar which automatically identifies friend/foe status of oncoming aircraft), the U.S.S. Vincennes mistakenly identifies an Iranian civilian airbus, Flight 655, as an attacking Iranian F-14. The ship opens fire on the airplane, killing 290 passengers. The radar detection system is later criticized as being too complicated for use in combat situations.
- February 1991: Smart bombs are used extensively to selectively destroy enemy targets in Kuwait and Iraq during the Gulf War. These bombs are praised for their effectiveness and precision. Videos of the bombs entering their targeted buildings are shown on public media. Also used in the Gulf War is the Navy's Tomahawk missile, as well as the Air Force's LANTIRN targeting system, which uses infrared detectors to locate targets in the dark or in bad weather.
- September 1991: AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) is deployed by the U.S. Navy and Air Force. This missile is the successor to the AIM-7 Sparrow. AIM-120 guides itself to its target by using its own radar system. It marks a great advancement in the notion of "fire-and-forget".
- January 1992: Testing begins on Autonomous Guidance for Conventional Weapons (AGCW) to be used in glide bombs. The AGCW uses an IR seeker to search for a generic type of target and automatically selects an aimpoint to fire at the target.