Executive Summary 

Drone warfare is rapidly changing, with one-way attack drones (OWAs) making significant leaps in performance and capacities during the last year. With unmanned systems like the Saheed-136 doubling top speeds and tripling payloads, or the recently developed Ukrainian FP-1 increasing the range of action by over a thousand miles. 

Simultaneously, non-state actors in the Middle East and Latin America have continued to weaponize commercially available platforms with high explosive ordnance. Mexican cartels have up-armed DJI Matrice 600 Pros and DJI Wings S900s, while Colombian guerrillas flew at least 250 strikes using Mavic 3s and Mini 4 PROs last year. The Houthis have locally produced low-cost quadcopters to replace larger airframes in Yemen.

Looking ahead, unnamed combat air vehicles (UCAV) will remain a fixture in irregular warfare, as professional armies from North America to Central Africa use them for counterinsurgency and counterterrorism-related purposes. These trends signal that both expendable and reusable drone systems will continue to evolve as core assets in state and non-state conflict scenarios.