
PAVE is a
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
program identifier relating to electronic systems. Prior to 1979, Pave was said to be a
code word for the Air Force unit responsible for the project.
''Pave'' was used as an inconsequential prefix identifier for a wide range of different programs,
though
backronym
A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
s and alternative meanings have been used.
For example, in the helicopters
Pave Low and
Pave Hawk it was said to mean ''Precision Avionics Vectoring Equipment'',
but in
PAVE PAWS
PAVE PAWS (PAVE Phased Array Warning System) is a complex Cold War early warning radar and computer system developed in 1980 to "detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States". The first solid-state ...
it was said to mean ''Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry''.
PAVE systems
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Pave Eagle – Modified Beechcraft Bonanza drone aircraft for low altitude sensor monitoring.
*
Pave Hawk – Sikorsky HH-60 Pave Hawk special operations and combat search and rescue helicopter.
*
Pave Nail - OV-10 Bronco with Pave Spot target laser designator pod.
*
Pave Knife
The Ford Aerospace AN/AVQ-10 Pave Knife was an early targeting pod developed by the USAF and US Navy to designate and guide laser-guided bombs.
Pave Knife was developed in 1969 in aviation, 1969 to replace the original, essentially improvised Ai ...
– Ford Aerospace AN/AVQ-10 Pave Knife early laser targeting pod.
*
Pave Low – Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low special ops and combat search and rescue helicopter.
*
Pave Mint – Upgrade of the AN/ALQ-117 electronic warfare system to the AN/ALQ-172.
* Pave Mover – Demonstration program to develop the AN/APY-7 radar wide-area surveillance, ground moving target indicator (GMTI), fixed target indicator (FTI) target classification, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR), for the
E-8 Joint STARS.
[https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0184/ch8.xhtml]
*
Pave Onyx – Vietnam era Advanced Location Strike System c.1973.
*
Pave Pace
PAVE is a United States Air Force program identifier relating to electronic systems. Prior to 1979, Pave was said to be a code word for the Air Force unit responsible for the project. ''Pave'' was used as an inconsequential prefix identifier fo ...
– A fully integrated avionics architecture featuring functional resource allocation.
*
PAVE PAWS
PAVE PAWS (PAVE Phased Array Warning System) is a complex Cold War early warning radar and computer system developed in 1980 to "detect and characterize a sea-launched ballistic missile attack against the United States". The first solid-state ...
– The Phased-Array Warning System which replaced the three
BMEWS
The RCA 474L Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS, 474L System, Project 474L) was a United States Air Force Cold War early warning radar, computer, and communications system, for ballistic missile detection. The network of twelve radar ...
radars. Pave in this case is a
backronym
A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. The ...
for Perimeter
or Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry.
*
Pave Penny – Lockheed-Martin AN/AAS-35(V) laser spot tracker.
*
Pave Pillar – Generic core avionics architecture system for combat aircraft.
*
Pave Pronto – Lockheed AC-130 Spectre gunship program.
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Pave Spectre
The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance, ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of ground-attack weapons that are integrated with sensors, navigation, and fir ...
– Lockheed AC-130E gunships.
*
Pave Spike – Westinghouse AN/ASQ-153\AN/AVQ-23 electro-optical laser designator pod.
*
Pave Sword – AN/AVQ-11 Pave Sword laser tracker.
*
Pave Tack – Ford Aerospace AN/AVQ-26 electro-optical targeting pod. Used first on
F-4 and then later on
F-111F model aircraft.
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Paveway
Paveway is a series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs).
''Pave'' or PAVE is sometimes used as an acronym for ''precision avionics vectoring equipment''; literally, electronics for controlling the speed and direction of aircraft. Laser guidance is a ...
– A family of laser-guided bomb conversion kits, to be fitted to standard unguided bombs.
*
Pave COIN
PAVE is a United States Air Force program identifier relating to electronic systems. Prior to 1979, Pave was said to be a code word for the Air Force unit responsible for the project. ''Pave'' was used as an inconsequential prefix identifier fo ...
/Project Little Brother - A USAF program evaluating counter insurgency aircraft during the early 1970s.
See also
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Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System
The Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System (LAMPS) is the United States Navy's program that develops crewed helicopters to assist the surface fleet in anti-submarine warfare.
The purpose of LAMPS is to scout outside the limits of a fleet's radar a ...
(LAMPS)
*
LANTIRN
LANTIRN (Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night) is a combined navigation and targeting pod system for use on the United States Air Force fighter aircraft—the F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon (Block 40/42 C & D mo ...
References
Notes
Bibliography
* - Contains a list of PAVE program names relating to Laser Guided bombs
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{{PAVE US
Equipment of the United States Air Force