page_title: Interstate TDR
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate TDR / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: The U.S. Navy escort carrier USS Marcus Island (CVE-77) in a South Pacific port, 17 June 1944. The airplanes parked on her flight deck from amidships to the stern appear to be Interstate TDR-1 assault drones. She is probably delivering elements of Special Task Air Group One (STAG-1), which employed TDR-1s in Solomons area combat operations during September and October 1944. Other planes on board appear to be TBMs, which were used for drone control. The ship is painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 15A.
context_page_description: The Interstate TDR was an early unmanned combat aerial vehicle — referred to at the time as an "assault drone" — developed by the Interstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation during the Second World War for use by the United States Navy. Capable of being armed with bombs or torpedoes, 2000 aircraft were ordered, but only around 200 were built. The type saw some service in the Pacific Theater against the Japanese, but continuing developmental issues affecting the aircraft, along with the success of operations using more conventional weapons, led to the decision being made to cancel the assault drone program in October 1944.
context_section_description: Under the code-name Operation Option, the U.S. Navy projected that up to 18 squadrons of assault drones would be formed, with 162 Grumman TBF Avenger control aircraft and 1000 assault drones being ordered. However technical difficulties in the development of the TDR-1, combined with a continued low priority given to the project, saw the contract modified with the order reduced to only around 300 aircraft. A single TDR-1 was tested by the U.S. Army Air Forces as the XBQ-4, however no production contract resulted from this testing.
  In 1944, under the control of the Special Air Task Force (SATFOR), the TDR-1 was deployed operationally to the South Pacific for operations against the Japanese. Additional testing was conducted by SATFOR in July, complete with a strike against a previously beached Japanese freighter, Yumasuki Maru, including management of the flight from a 7 miles (11 km) distant TBM Avenger control aircraft, which could monitor the view from the TDRs via early television technology.
  SATFOR equipped a single mixed squadron, Special Task Air Group 1 (STAG-1), with TDR-1 aircraft and TBM Avenger control aircraft; the first operational mission took place on September 27, conducting bombing operations against Japanese ships. Despite this success, the assault drone program had already been canceled after the production of 189 TDR-1 aircraft, due to a combination of continued technical problems, the aircraft failing to live up to expectations, and the fact that more conventional weaponry was proving adequate for the defeat of Japan. The final mission was flown on October 27, with 50 drones having been expended on operations, 31 aircraft successfully striking their targets, without loss to the pilots of STAG-1.
  Following the war, some TDR-1s were converted for operation as private sportsplanes.
caption: USS Marcus Island (CVE-77), transporting TDR-1s and associated TBM Avenger control aircraft to South West Pacific theatre (June 1944)
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