Drone warfare

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Drone warfare is a form of warfare using unmanned or autonomous robots. The robots may be remote controlled 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).^[1] The United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Iraq, Italy, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Poland^[2][3][4] are known to have manufactured operational UCAVs as of 2019.^[5]

Drones are commonly used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance and to conduct direct attacks on target, however they may also be utilized for electronic warfare, explosive ordnance disposal or augmenting battlefield logistics.^[6] Aerial drone attacks can be conducted via purpose-built UCAVs deploying ordnance during a drone strike or by weaponized commercial UAVs aerial dropping munitions or crashing into a target.^[7] Heavy-lift multirotor UAVs may also be used to airlift supplies to friendly ground forces.^[8][9] UAVs, USVs and UGVs are variously used for reconnaissance, kamikaze missions, transporting cargo, medical evacuation or may serve an anti-air, anti-armor or anti-personnel role.^[10] Larger drones can serve a "mothership" or drone carrier role, deploying smaller, sub-drones or being equipped with electronic warfare features such as a signal repeater in support of secondary drones.^[11][12] Multiple drones may attack simultaneously in a drone swarm.^[13]

In the early years of the 21st century, most drone strikes were carried out by the US military in such countries as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya using air-to-surface missiles against ground targets.^[14] Drone warfare has been increasingly deployed by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran and by militant groups such as the Houthis.^[15] Observers have described drone warfare as one of the most significant innovations of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, beginning in 2022,^[16] and one that characterized the war.^{[17][among whom?]}