cover image: A Plague on the Horizon: Concerns on the Proliferation of Drone Swarms

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A Plague on the Horizon: Concerns on the Proliferation of Drone Swarms

22 Oct 2024

Introduction In a July 2020 report , New America identified 38 states with armed drone programmes, 11 of which had used armed drones in combat. [1] Twenty-eight more states have programmes in development. [2] Global exports enable the rapid proliferation of drones, as states share drone technology with others. The US, Israel, and China have been the largest exporters. [3] Iran has also helped non-state allies—Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthi rebels—acquire drones. [4] The expanding, broad commercial drone industry and simple do-it-yourself ingenuity have also helped the Islamic State and various lone-wolf actors acquire and use them. [5] Single drones are increasingly being integrated into collaborative drone swarms. Precisely defined, drone swarms are “multiple unmanned systems capable of coordinating their actions to accomplish shared objectives.” [a] [6] These are proliferating quickly as well. Armenia, China, France, India, Israel, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, and the US all have drone swarm programmes under development. [7] In May 2021, Israel became the first state to use a drone swarm in combat, collecting and relaying information on Hamas militant locations for follow-up attacks. [8] In most cases, the drone swarm consists of homogeneous, aerial drones, such as the 103 Perdix drone that the US Strategic Capabilities office launched out of three F/A-18 Super Hornets in January 2017. [9] Others, such as Elbit System’s Torch-X, integrate diverse ground and aerial vehicles. [10]
india china iran middle east exports israel international affairs hamas islamic state hezbollah houthi rebels combat international norms defence and security usa and canada armed drones drone swarm technology military value drone swarms global proliferation national export controls

Authors

Zachary Kallenborn

Attribution
Zachary Kallenborn, “A Plague on the Horizon: Concerns on the Proliferation of Drone Swarms,” ORF Issue Brief No. 743 , October 2024, Observer Research Foundation.
Pages
20
Published in
India

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