Canadair CL-89

CL-89
A German Army CL-289
Role	Surveillance drone
National origin	Canada
Manufacturer	Canadair
First flight	March 1964

The Canadair CL-89 is a surveillance drone (UAV) produced jointly by Canada, Britain and West Germany in the 1960s. It was later redesigned and improved, and redesignated the CL-289.

In June 1963, a sponsorship by Canada and Britain agreed to have Canadair design, evaluate and test the CL-89 drone. The concept had been developed at Canadair from the CL-85, a study for the carriage of dispatches. West Germany later joined the group, and although the USA was invited to join, they declined.

The first, less than successful flight was made at Yuma, Arizona in March 1964. The British wanted changes in the system (consisting of the drone, the launcher, the retrieval equipment and the support) to be "Soldier Proof". They sent an army officer to Canadair and with his help set up a maintenance advisory group which had excellent results. CL-89 had a difficult development and was almost abandoned.

The first complete CL-89 system was supplied to the West Germans in 1969. During the 1970s, Both France and Italy joined the British and West Germans in operating the CL-89. NATO gave the entire system the designation AN/USD-501; in UK service it was known as the Midge. The system was designed for information collecting at a divisional level.

In Royal Artillery service Midge was operated by a troop in a divisional locating battery. This troop had two launchers, all the facilities for processing and analysing imagery and for repair and servicing of the aircraft. The troop comprised two officers and about 70 soldiers. Tasking was through the artillery intelligence cell at divisional HQ and the primary use was to confirm suspected enemy locations, particularly hostile artillery. In UK service Midge replaced the Northrop Radioplane SD-1, known in service as "Observer", and was replaced in turn by Phoenix. Midge was used operationally in Kuwait in 1991.

In German Army service, CL-89 was operated by a battery in the divisional observation battalion. The organisation was similar to the British but had six officers and about 120 soldiers.

Logistic support for CL-89 was provided to user nations through NAMSA.

In November 1987, an agreement was signed between Canada, West Germany and France for the production of the CL-289 system. The design of this was started in 1974. It was a larger drone with better range and payload than the CL-89. It was intended to obtain corps level intelligence for the armies of NATO. Although similar in appearance to the CL-89, many changes in design were necessary. The CL-289 entered service in November 1990, the entire system being designated AN/USD-502.

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