Unmanned combat aerial vehicle

History

Main article: History of unmanned combat aerial vehicles, Drone warfare, Civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes

First Attempts - 1940-1970

One of the earliest explorations of the concept of the combat drone was pioneered by two men: Lee de Forest who was an inventor and developer of early radio controlled devices and U.A. Sanabria who was an electrical engineer in the emerging field of television and commercial broadcasting. Their idea for a radio-command vehicle was featured in an article in a 1940 publication of Popular Mechanics. The modern military drone was the brainchild of John Stuart Foster Jr., a nuclear physicist of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. In 1971, Foster was a model airplane hobbyist and had the idea this hobby could be applied to building weapons. He drew up plans and by 1973 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) built two prototypes called "Prairie" and "Calera". They were powered by a modified lawn-mower engine and could stay aloft for two hours while carrying a 28 lb load.

Israel Takes the Lead: Yom Kippur War and Lebanon War 1973-1982

In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel used unarmed U.S. Ryan Firebee target drones to spur Egypt into firing its entire arsenal of anti-aircraft missiles. This mission was accomplished with no injuries to Israeli pilots, who soon exploited the depleted Egyptian defences. In the late 1970s and 80s, Israel developed the Scout and the Pioneer, which represented a shift toward the modern lighter, glider-type model of UAV. Israel pioneered the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for real-time surveillance, electronic warfare, and decoys.{{cite web |access-date = 2013-08-14 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130522111255/http://www.howstuffworks.com/reaper1.htm |archive-date = 2013-05-22 |url-status = live |access-date = 2013-08-14 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131026110814/http://strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/20090409.aspx |archive-date = 2013-10-26 |url-status = live |access-date = 2013-08-14 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131203060756/http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000691790 |archive-date = 2013-12-03 |url-status = live |access-date = January 13, 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150503014732/http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB126325146524725387 |archive-date = 2015-05-03 |url-status = live

Adolescence: US and Iran Explore New Capabilities and Evolving Technology 1980-1990

In the late 1980s, Iran deployed a drone armed with six RPG-7 rounds in the Iran–Iraq War.

Impressed by Israel's success, the US quickly acquired a number of UAVs, and its Hunter and Pioneer systems are direct derivatives of Israeli models. The first 'UAV war' was the first Persian Gulf War: according to a May 1991 Department of the Navy report: "At least one UAV was airborne at all times during Desert Storm." After the Persian Gulf War successfully demonstrated its utility, global militaries invested widely in the domestic development of combat UAVs. The first "kill" by an American UAV was on October 7, 2001, in Kandahar.

Between 2004 to late 2012, the U.S. has increased its use of drone strikes against targets in Pakistan and elsewhere as part of the war on terror. In January 2014, it was estimated that 2,400 people were killed by U.S. drone strikes in five years. In June 2015, the total death toll of U.S. drone strikes was estimated to exceed 6,000.

In 2020, Turkey became the first country to use UCAVs in a large, coordinated attack on a conventional battlefield when it attacked forces in Syria. They were used to attack enemy positions, to provide cover for ground forces and to scout for artillery. Drones were used extensively in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Azerbaijan's use of cheaper Turkish TB2 drones was seen as crucial to their victory against the Armenian forces.

Drones were also used extensively during the Russo-Ukrainian war. The 2022 conflict was widely described as the first full-scale war featuring the large-scale use of small and commercial-grade UAVs in military settings. Consumer quadcopters and first-person view (FPV) drones, modified with sensors and explosives, were being used for military missions. The affordability and availability of small UAVs have shifted modern warfare and given rise to new offensive and defensive strategies. Usage of small combat drones offers a cost advantage, and their high performance, reliability, and commercial availability for repair parts also contributed to their popularity.

By country

China

China manufactures and exports combat drones on a large scale, and the country is the source of most commercial UAV components. The People's Liberation Army military operates multiple types of unmanned combat aerial vehicles. Since 2010, Chinese drone companies have begun to export large quantities of drones to the global military market. Of the 18 countries that are known to have received military drones between 2010 and 2019, the top 12 all purchased their drones from China. The shift accelerated in the 2020s due to China's advancement in drone technologies and manufacturing, compounded by market demand from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict. Chinese companies that manufactures military unmanned aerial vehicles include China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, etc.

China is known to be developing various "loyal wingman" UCAVs, such as AVIC Dark Sword, which is a concept first revealed in 2006. Stealth UCAV, such as Hongdu GJ-11 unmanned combat aerial vehicles, are designed to be controlled by the Chengdu J-20 fighter, forming manned-unmanned aircraft teams. Other stealth UCAVs include Feihong FH-97 UCAV developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC). It was designed to suppress air defenses with electronic countermeasures, fly ahead of aircraft to provide early warning, act as an expandable decoy, as well as provide reconnaissance and damage evaluation. Feihong FH-97A, a loyal wingman drone designed to fly alongside the fighter aircraft.

In August and September 2025, China unveiled multiple different types of UCAV and loyal wingmen prototype under development, and the naval variant of the Hongdu GJ-11 UCAV. These Chinese UCAV designs have different wing configurations and engine options, with some large UCAVs aimed to perform air superiority mission independently or collaboratively with manned aircraft.

In 2025, the first pictures of two very large stealthy long range drones appeared. They have been unofficially designated as the “WZ-X” and “GJ-X”.

Israel

Elbit Hermes 450

Main article: Elbit Hermes 450

The Israeli Air Force, which operates a squadron of Hermes 450s out of Palmachim Airbase south of Tel Aviv, has adapted the Hermes 450 for use as an assault UAV, reportedly equipping it with two Hellfire missiles or, according to various sources, two Rafael-made missiles. According to Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese, and independent reports, the Israeli assault UAV has been used in the Gaza Strip and was used intensively in the Second Lebanon War. Israel has not denied this capability, but to date, its policy has been to not officially confirm it either.

Turkiye

TAI Anka-3

Main article: TAI Anka-3

TAI Anka 3 is the code-name for the new single engine UCAV being developed by TAI. It will have a flying wing form, and will feature low-observable stealth technology. The role of the aircraft will be suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), penetration and bomber.

TAI Aksungur

Main article: TAI Aksungur

TAI Aksungur is a built by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) for the Turkish Armed Forces. Using existing technology from the TAI Anka series of drones, it is the manufacturer's largest drone,{{cite news |access-date=26 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627193525/https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/idef-aksungur-uav-makes-show-debut-after-first-flig-457878/ |archive-date=27 June 2019 |url-status=live

Bayraktar Kizilelma

Main article: Bayraktar Kızılelma

Bayraktar Kızılelma is a proposed jet-powered, single-engine, low-observable, supersonic, carrier-capable unmanned combat aircraft in development by Baykar, famous for its Bayraktar TB2. On 12 March 2022, Selçuk Bayraktar, CTO of Baykar announced that the first prototype of the Bayraktar Kızılelma has entered the production line. On November 30, 2025, the Bayraktar Kızılelma successfully completed a landmark flight and firing test campaign, achieving a global first among Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs). The platform successfully launched Gökdoğan, a Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) air-to-air missile, which is equipped with an active radar seeker head, utilizing the autonomous guidance capabilities of its own integrated MURAD AESA Radar system. With this unparalleled operational demonstration, the Kızılelma has officially secured its position as the world's first unmanned fighter jet to validate this critical BVR engagement capability on a fully autonomous platform.

United Kingdom

BAE Systems Taranis

Main article: BAE Systems Taranis

Taranis is a British demonstrator program for unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) technology. It is part of the UK's Strategic Unmanned Air Vehicle (Experimental) (SUAV[E]) program. BAE describes Taranis's role in this context as following: "This £124m, four -year programme is part of the UK Government's Strategic Unmanned Air Vehicle Experiment (SUAVE) and will result in a UCAV demonstrator with fully integrated autonomous systems and low observable features."

The Taranis demonstrator will have an MTOW (Maximum Takeoff Weight) of about 8000 kilograms and be of comparable size to the BAE Hawk – making it one of the world's largest UAVs. It will be stealthy, fast, and able to deploy a range of munitions over a number of targets, as well as being capable of defending itself against manned and other unmanned enemy aircraft. The first steel was cut in September 2007 and ground testing started in early 2009. The first flight of the Taranis took place in August 2013 in Woomera, Australia. The demonstrator will have two internal weapons bays. With the inclusion of "full autonomy" the intention is thus for this platform to be able to "think for itself" for a large part of the mission.

United States

Main article: Battlefield UAVs of the United States

J-UCAS

Main article: Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems

• Boeing X-45 UCAV (TD)
• Northrop-Grumman X-47 Pegasus

Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems, or J-UCAS, was the name for the joint U.S. Navy/U.S. Air Force unmanned combat air vehicle procurement project. J-UCAS was managed by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, the J-UCAS program was terminated. The program would have used stealth technologies and allowed UCAVs to be armed with precision-guided weapons such as Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) or precision miniature munitions, such as the Small-Diameter Bomb, which are used to suppress enemy air defenses. Controllers could have used real-time data sources, including satellites, to plan for and respond to changes on and around the battlefield.

The program was later revitalized into UCAS-D, a United States Navy program designed to develop a carrier-based unmanned aircraft.

N-UCAS

UCAS-D and Northrop Grumman X-47B are the U.S. Navy-only successors to the J-UCAS, which was canceled in 2006. Boeing is also working on the X-45N in this sector.

In a New Year 2011 editorial titled "China's Naval Ambitions", The New York Times editorial board argued that "[t]he Pentagon must accelerate efforts to make American naval forces in Asia less vulnerable to Chinese missile threats by giving them the means to project their deterrent power from further offshore. Cutting back purchases of the Navy's DDG-1000 destroyer (with its deficient missile defense system) was a first step. A bigger one would be to reduce the Navy's reliance on short-range manned strike aircraft like the F-18 and the F-35, in favor of the carrier-launched N-UCAS ...."

On 6 January 2011, the DOD announced that this would be one area of additional investment in the 2012 budget request.

USAF Hunter-Killer

Main article: USAF Hunter-Killer

• Scaled Composites Model 395
• Scaled Composites Model 396
• General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (originally the Predator B)
• Aurora Flight Sciences/Israel Aircraft Industries Eagle/Heron 2
• Unnamed Lockheed Martin entry

The United States Air Force has shifted its UCAV program from medium-range tactical strike aircraft to long-range strategic bombers. The technology of the Long Range Strike program is based on the Lockheed Martin Polecat demonstrator.

Multinational

• EADS Surveyor: The EADS "Surveyor" is still in preliminary investigation phase. It will be a fixed-wing, jet-powered UAV and is being positioned as a replacement for the CL-289. EADS is currently working on a demonstrator, the "Carapas", modified from an Italian Mirach 100 drone. The production Surveyor would be a stealthy machine with a top speed of 850 km/h (530 mph), an endurance of up to three hours, and capable of carrying a sophisticated sensor payload, including SIGINT gear. It would also be able to carry external loads, such as air-dropped sensors or light munitions.

Non-state actors

In the mid-2010s, the Islamic State terrorist group began attaching explosives to commercially available quadcopters such as the Chinese-made DJI Phantom to bomb military targets in Iraq and Syria. During the 2016–17 battle of Mosul, the Islamic State reportedly used drones as surveillance and weapons delivery platforms, using improvised cradles to drop grenades and other explosives. An Islamic State drone facility was notably targeted by Royal Air Force strike aircraft during the battle.

Militant groups during the Syrian civil war have also reportedly used UAVs in attacks, one example being a swarm of drones armed with bombs attacking Russian bases in western Syria in early January 2018.

Starting in the 2020s, Mexican drug cartels began dropping reportedly hundreds of drone-carried bombs targeting both security forces and enemy gangs during turf wars.

Safety and security

Counter-UAS

There has been widespread use of drones in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Ukrainian soldiers use GPS signals to guide a drone to find Russian artillery and to guide Ukrainian artillery. Jamming these drone GPS signals cause drones to operate less effectively, as the operators of drones have to rely on pre-programmed routes through areas of jamming until communications can be restored. Other systems supplied by the West rely on automation. Systems like the AeroVironment Switchblade can find targets autonomously, requiring human permission only to engage found targets. In October 2022 a video appeared on the web showing two drones colliding and one being rendered unflyable as a result.

On 27 December 2022 North Korea sent five drones over its border with South Korea. One reaching Seoul, all five returned to the North, despite a five-hour chase involving fighter jets and attack helicopters with some 100 rounds being fired. A South Korean KAI KT-1 Woongbi crashed although both crew survived. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (South Korea) released a statement in which it said that while it can stop attack drones, its ability to stop smaller spy drones is "limited". A senior official, Kang Shin-chul, said: "Our military's lack of preparedness has caused a lot of concern to the people…actively employ detection devices to spot the enemy's drone from an early stage and aggressively deploy strike assets". The South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has indicated that South Korea will invest in stealthy drones that could penetrate North Korea, with the creation of a new military unit.

The South Korean Defence Ministry announced a new series of anti-drone measures, planning to spend some 560 billion won over the next five years. The money will go towards four new initiatives. One is an airborne laser that will be used to destroy larger drones, whilst a jammer would be used on smaller drones. A new counter drone unit, made up of two squadrons, would also be created. The laser is already in the test phase and is expected to become operational in 2027. The jamming system has been described as "soft kill".

Ethics and laws

Civilian casualties

Israel

In March 2009, The Guardian reported allegations that Israeli UAVs armed with missiles killed 48 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, including two small children in a field and a group of women and girls in an otherwise empty street. In June, Human Rights Watch investigated six UAV attacks that were reported to have resulted in civilian casualties and alleged that Israeli forces either failed to take all feasible precautions to verify that the targets were combatants or failed to distinguish between combatants and civilians.

United States

Main article: Disposition Matrix, Civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes

Collateral damage of civilians still takes place with drone combat, although some (like John O. Brennan) have argued that it greatly reduces the likelihood. Although drones enable advanced tactical surveillance and up-to-the-minute data, flaws can become apparent. The U.S. drone program in Pakistan has killed several dozen civilians accidentally. An example is the operation in February 2010 near Khod, in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan. Over ten civilians in a three-vehicle convoy travelling from Daykundi Province were accidentally killed after a drone crew misidentified the civilians as hostile threats. A force of Bell OH-58 Kiowa helicopters, who were attempting to protect ground troops fighting several kilometers away, fired AGM-114 Hellfire missiles at the vehicles.

In 2009, the Brookings Institution reported that in the US-led drone attacks in Pakistan, ten civilians died for every militant killed. A former ambassador of Pakistan said that American UAV attacks were turning Pakistani opinion against the United States. The website PakistanBodyCount.Org reported 1,065 civilian deaths between 2004 and 2010. According to a 2010 analysis by the New America Foundation 114 UAV-based missile strikes in northwest Pakistan from 2004 killed between 830 and 1,210 individuals, around 550 to 850 of whom were militants. In October 2013, the Pakistani government revealed that since 2008 317 drone strikes had killed 2,160 Islamic militants and 67 civilians – far less than previous government and independent organization calculations.

In July 2013, former Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson said, on a panel at the Aspen Institute's Security Forum, that he felt an emotional reaction upon reading Nasser al-Awlaki's account of how his 16-year-old grandson was killed by a U.S. drone.

In December 2013, a U.S. drone strike in Radda, capital of Yemen's Bayda province, killed members of a wedding party. The following February, Human Rights Watch published a 28-page report reviewing the strike and its legality, among other things. Titled "A Wedding That Became A Funeral", the report concludes that some (but not necessarily all) of the casualties were civilians, not the intended regional Al-Qaeda targets. The organization demanded US and Yemeni investigations into the attack. In its research, HRW "found no evidence that the individuals taking part in the wedding procession posed an imminent threat to life. In the absence of an armed conflict, killing them would be a violation of international human rights law."

Political effects

As a new weapon, drones are having unforeseen political effects. Some scholars have argued that the extensive use of drones will undermine the popular legitimacy of local governments, which are blamed for permitting the strikes.

On August 6, 2020, U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a bill to ban sales, transfers, and exports of large armed drones to countries outside of NATO amid concerns that civilians were killed with American-made weapons used by Saudi Arabia and the UAE during the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. Congress had previously passed a similar measure with bipartisan support, but failed to overcome President Donald Trump's veto.

Psychological effects

Controllers can also experience psychological stress from the combat they are involved in. A few may even experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). There are some reports of drone pilots struggling with post traumatic stress disorder after they have killed civilians, especially children. Unlike bomber pilots, moreover, drone operators linger long after the explosives strike and see its effects on human bodies in stark detail. The intense training that US drone operators undergo "works to dehumanise the 'enemy' people below whilst glorifying and celebrating the killing process."

Professor Shannon E. French, the director of the Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University and a former professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, wonders if the PTSD may be rooted in a suspicion that something else was at stake. According to Professor French, the author of the 2003 book The Code of the Warrior:

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