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.^[1][2] Pave was used as an inconsequential prefix identifier for a wide range of different programs,^[3] though backronyms and alternative meanings have been used.^[4] For example, in the helicopters Pave Low and Pave Hawk it was said to mean Precision Avionics Vectoring Equipment,^[4] but in PAVE PAWS it was said to mean Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry.^[3]

PAVE systems

• 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 – 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.
• Pave Onyx – Vietnam era Advanced Location Strike System c.1973.^[5]
• Pave Pace – A fully integrated avionics architecture featuring functional resource allocation.
• PAVE PAWS – The Phased-Array Warning System which replaced the three BMEWS radars. Pave in this case is a backronym for Perimeter^[6] or Precision Acquisition Vehicle Entry.^[3]
• 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.
• Pave Spectre – 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.
• Paveway – A family of laser-guided bomb conversion kits, to be fitted to standard unguided bombs.
• Pave COIN/Project Little Brother - A USAF program evaluating counter insurgency aircraft during the early 1970s.