Drone warfare

This article is about drones attacking targets. For incidents with a drone, see List of unmanned aerial vehicles-related incidents.

Drone warfare is a form of warfare that involves the deployment of military robots and unmanned systems. The robots may be remote controlled by a pilot or have varying levels of autonomy during their mission. Types of robots include unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), unmanned surface vehicles (USV) or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). The applications of UAVs, UGVs, USVs, and UUVs are diverse, ranging from reconnaissance, kamikaze missions, bomb disposal, cargo transport, and medical evacuation to anti-air, anti-armor, and anti-personnel role. As of 2019, the following nations have been identified as having operational UCAVs: China, France, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the United States, the United Kingdom and Ukraine.

Drones find application in a variety of military operations, including electronic warfare, explosive ordnance disposal, training and logistics support. However, they are most frequently employed in intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions, enabling direct attacks on targets as part of a kill chain or through manned-unmanned teaming. Aerial drone attacks can be executed through the use of purpose-built UCAVs, that deploy ordnance during a drone strike, or by weaponized commercial UAVs that drop munitions or engage in aerial assaults. Heavy-lift drones may also be used to airlift supplies or evacuation of wounded personnel across a battlefield. Smaller drones, such as SUAVs and MAVs, are man-portable and can be deployed for low-altitude, short-range support operations. Larger drones can serve a "mothership" role by deploying smaller, sub-drones or by being equipped with electronic warfare features such as a signal repeater. Multiple drones can operate and attack simultaneously in a drone swarm and autonomous drones, such as LAWs, utilize military AI.

The early years of the 21st century saw most drone strikes being conducted by the US military using air-to-surface missiles against ground targets within countries such as Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen during the war on terror. Drone warfare evolved and proliferated quickly in the 2010s and 2020s, with countries such as Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine utilizing drones with increased ubiquity. Militant groups, such as the Islamic State and Houthis, and organized crime groups such as Mexican cartels likewise used drones for attacks against adversaries and for logistical purposes.

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is "widely recognised as the world's first drone war" due to the large scale and high intensity of drone attacks, and the role of this experience in evolving the tactics of modern conventional warfare. Both armies have used a multitude of UAVs, including long range fixed-wing drones and short range multirotor FPV drones. Ukraine became the first country to create a military branch exclusively dedicated to drone warfare—the Unmanned Systems Forces—in June 2024, with Russia following soon with its own Unmanned Systems Forces in November 2025. The Russo-Ukrainian war demonstrated how drones have disrupted traditional military doctrines in a manner similar to how gunpowder revolutionized warfare, making them a "decisive" factor in all future conflicts.

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