Loitering Munition

A loitering munition is a weapon that combines features of a drone and a missile: it can fly to an area, loiter there searching for a target, and then attack by diving into the target and detonating, a kamikaze weapon that hunts before it strikes. The name captures the distinctive capability, that unlike a missile fired at a known target, a loitering munition can loiter, waiting and searching over an area until it finds a target, and then destroy it by crashing into it with its warhead, so it combines the loitering, searching flight of a drone with the destructive attack of a missile. These weapons, sometimes called kamikaze drones or suicide drones, became one of the most significant weapons of recent warfare, especially in Ukraine, where they reshaped the battlefield with their combination of persistence, precision, and low cost.

Why loitering munitions reshaped warfare

Loitering munitions proved so significant because they combine capabilities, persistence, precision, and low cost, that together are transformative, giving even small forces a powerful way to find and destroy targets. The persistence of loitering, the ability to search an area for a target rather than being fired at a known one, makes loitering munitions effective at finding and attacking targets of opportunity, hunting for the enemy and striking when a target appears, a capability that a conventional missile fired at a fixed target lacks, so the loitering munition can find and destroy targets that would otherwise be hard to hit. The precision of the attack, diving into the specific target with the warhead, makes loitering munitions accurate, destroying the target they identify rather than an area, a precision that makes them effective against specific targets like vehicles, positions, and individuals. And the low cost of many loitering munitions, especially the cheaper ones, makes them affordable in quantity, so they can be used freely and in numbers, unlike expensive precision weapons that must be used sparingly, which means the precision and persistence they provide come cheaply enough to be used abundantly. This combination, the persistence to hunt, the precision to strike, and the low cost to use abundantly, is what makes loitering munitions transformative, since it gives forces, even small ones, a way to find and precisely destroy targets in quantity at low cost, a capability that changes the battlefield by making precision hunting-and-striking widely available and affordable. The economics are particularly powerful, since a cheap loitering munition can destroy a target worth far more than the munition, an armored vehicle, an artillery piece, a valuable system, so the exchange favors the loitering munition, which destroys expensive targets at low cost, a favorable economics that makes loitering munitions an effective and efficient way to impose cost on the enemy, destroying valuable targets cheaply. This favorable combination of capabilities and economics is why loitering munitions have become so significant, providing a cheap, precise, persistent way to find and destroy targets that has reshaped how forces fight.

The war in Ukraine showcased loitering munitions dramatically, with both sides using them extensively and the weapons proving decisive in many engagements, demonstrating their impact on the modern battlefield. Ukraine and Russia both employed loitering munitions of various kinds extensively, from sophisticated systems to cheap improvised ones, using them to hunt and destroy vehicles, artillery, positions, and other targets across the battlefield, and the weapons became a defining feature of the war, their persistent hunting and precise striking transforming the battlefield into a place where forces are constantly hunted by loitering munitions searching for targets. The cheap first-person-view drones adapted as loitering munitions, small drones flown into targets by operators watching through the drone's camera, became especially prominent, providing a cheap, precise, widely available loitering-munition capability that both sides used in enormous numbers, and these cheap loitering munitions, costing little and available in quantity, destroyed vehicles and other targets worth far more, demonstrating the favorable economics and the battlefield impact of the weapons. The prominence of loitering munitions in Ukraine drove home their significance and their implications, showing how these weapons reshape the battlefield by making precision hunting-and-striking cheap and abundant, how they threaten even expensive systems with cheap destruction, and how they empower even small forces with a powerful capability to find and destroy targets, lessons that militaries around the world absorbed as they recognized the transformation that loitering munitions represent. The war also demonstrated the countermeasures and the measure-countermeasure contest around loitering munitions, particularly the electronic warfare used to jam the control and navigation of the drones, and the adaptations to counter and to defeat the countermeasures, an evolving contest that continues as loitering munitions and the defenses against them develop, but the fundamental significance of the weapons, their reshaping of the battlefield with cheap, precise, persistent hunting-and-striking, was clearly established, making loitering munitions one of the most important weapons developments of recent warfare.

Loitering munitions and the future of warfare

Loitering munitions represent a significant trend in warfare toward cheap, abundant, precise, autonomous or semi-autonomous weapons, a trend with major implications for how wars will be fought and for what militaries must prepare for. The rise of loitering munitions is part of a broader shift toward cheap, abundant precision, the affordable mass of inexpensive precise weapons that can be used in quantity, which challenges the traditional model of expensive precision weapons used sparingly and points toward a future of warfare with abundant cheap precision, a shift that loitering munitions exemplify and advance. This trend has major implications, since it changes the economics of warfare, making it possible to destroy expensive targets cheaply and to field precision in quantity, and it empowers a wider range of actors, since cheap loitering munitions are accessible to smaller forces and even non-state actors, spreading the capability to find and precisely destroy targets beyond the major militaries. The trend also drives the development of countermeasures and of the autonomy that loitering munitions increasingly incorporate, since defeating the growing numbers of loitering munitions requires effective countermeasures, especially the electronic warfare and the counter-drone systems that can defeat them, and since the loitering munitions themselves increasingly incorporate autonomy, searching for and attacking targets with less human control, which advances the trend toward autonomous weapons and raises the questions about autonomy in lethal weapons. Militaries around the world are absorbing the lessons of loitering munitions and adapting, developing their own loitering munitions, the countermeasures to defeat the enemy's, and the concepts for fighting on a battlefield saturated with these weapons, recognizing that loitering munitions have become a significant and enduring feature of warfare that they must both employ and counter. The significance of loitering munitions, therefore, extends beyond their impact in Ukraine to their place in the broader transformation of warfare toward cheap, abundant, precise, increasingly autonomous weapons, a transformation that loitering munitions exemplify and that has major implications for the economics, the participants, and the conduct of future warfare, making these cheap kamikaze drones that hunt and strike one of the most consequential weapons developments of the current era, reshaping the battlefield and pointing toward a future of warfare transformed by the abundant, cheap, precise, autonomous weapons that loitering munitions represent.

How is a loitering munition different from a regular drone or missile?

A loitering munition combines features of both a drone and a missile, differing from each in ways that give it its distinctive capability, the ability to loiter and search for a target and then destroy it by attacking it. A regular drone, in the sense of a reusable uncrewed aircraft, flies to observe, strike, or perform other missions and returns to be used again, whereas a loitering munition is expendable, destroying itself in the attack by crashing into the target with its warhead, so unlike a reusable drone, the loitering munition is a one-way weapon that is consumed in its attack, more like a missile in being expended when it strikes. A regular missile is fired at a known target and flies directly to it, whereas a loitering munition can loiter, searching an area for a target rather than being fired at a known one, so unlike a missile that goes to a predetermined target, the loitering munition can hunt, waiting and searching until it finds a target and then attacking it, more like a drone in its ability to loiter and search. So the loitering munition combines the loitering, searching flight of a drone with the expendable, destroy-the-target attack of a missile, differing from a regular drone in being expended in its attack and from a regular missile in being able to loiter and hunt rather than going directly to a known target. This combination is what gives the loitering munition its distinctive capability and significance, the ability to fly to an area, loiter and search for a target, and then destroy it by attacking it, a capability that neither a regular reusable drone nor a regular directly-fired missile has, since the drone does not destroy itself in the attack and the missile does not loiter and hunt, so the loitering munition occupies a distinct place, combining the hunting persistence of a drone with the target-destroying attack of a missile into a weapon that can hunt and then strike, which is precisely the capability that has made loitering munitions so effective and significant, the cheap, precise, persistent hunting-and-striking that reshaped the battlefield, a capability that comes from combining the features of drones and missiles into the distinctive weapon that the loitering munition is.