page_title: Iowa-class battleship
section_title: Aircraft (1982–1992)
hierarchical_section_title: Iowa-class battleship / 1980s refit / Aircraft (1982–1992)
caption_attribution_description: English: Crewmen disengage a Pioneer I remotely-piloted vehicle (RPV) from a recovery net erected on the stern of the battleship USS IOWA (BB-61). The RPV, which carries a stabilized television camera and a laser designator, is being tested aboard the Iowa as a basic gunfire support system with over-the-horizon targeting and reconnaissance capabilities. The system may be operated out to a range of 110 miles from the battleship surface group and has an endurance of eight hours.
context_page_description: The Iowa class was a class of six fast battleships ordered by the United States Navy in 1939 and 1940. They were initially intended to intercept fast capital ships such as the Japanese Kongō class while also being capable of serving in a traditional battle line alongside slower battleships and act as its "fast wing". The Iowa class was designed to meet the Second London Naval Treaty's "escalator clause" limit of 45,000-long-ton standard displacement. Four vessels, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin, were completed; two more, Illinois and Kentucky, were laid down but canceled in 1945 and 1958, respectively, before completion, and both hulls were scrapped in 1958–1959.
  The four Iowa-class ships were the last battleships commissioned in the US Navy. All older US battleships were decommissioned by 1947 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Registry by 1963. Between the mid-1940s and the early 1990s, the Iowa-class battleships fought in four major US wars. In the Pacific Theater of World War II, they served primarily as fast escorts for Essex-class aircraft carriers of the Fast Carrier Task Force and also shelled Japanese positions.
context_section_description: During the 1980s these battleships made use of the RQ-2 Pioneer, an unmanned aerial vehicle employed in spotting for the guns. Launched from the fantail using a rocket-assist booster that was discarded shortly after takeoff, the Pioneer carried a video camera in a pod under the belly of the aircraft which transmitted live video to the ship so operators could observe enemy actions or fall of shot during naval gunnery. To land the UAV a large net was deployed at the back of the ship; the aircraft was flown into it. Missouri and Wisconsin both used the Pioneer UAVs successfully during Operation Desert Storm, and in one particularly memorable incident, a Pioneer UAV operated by Wisconsin received the surrender of Iraqi troops during combat operations. This particular Pioneer was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution, and is now on public display. During Operation Desert Storm these Pioneers were operated by detachments of VC-6. In addition to the Pioneer UAVs, the recommissioned Iowas could support six types of helicopters: the Sikorsky HO3S-1, UH-1 Iroquois, SH-2 Seasprites, CH-46 Sea Knight, CH-53 Sea Stallion and the LAMPS III SH-60B Seahawk.
caption: Crewmen recover an RQ-2 Pioneer unmanned aerial vehicle aboard Iowa
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