 UAVs, such as the Northrop Falconer, had been developed for battlefield reconnaissance beginning in the 1950s, but these machines saw little or no combat service.Israelis pioneered the operational use of battlefield UAVs in the early 1980s, during their operations in southern Lebanon.Very few of the technologies they used were all that new, but the Israelis finally achieved the proper formula for operational success, using their battlefield UAVs to help destroy Syrian surface-to-air missile sites and assist in other combat operations.