By: Ingvild Bode and Tom Watts
Published by: Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark
Date: May 2023
Type: Report
Summary
Loitering munitions – expendable uncrewed aircraft which can integrate sensorbased analysis to hover over, detect and explode into targets – are an increasingly prominent feature of modern battlefields. Existing studies have examined whether these technologies are changing the character of contemporary warfare, how
the proliferation of loitering munitions impacts regional (and global) security dynamics, and what this may mean for the force structure of militaries across
the world. Building on our earlier study of air defence systems, this report has a different focus. It examines the global acquisition and fielding of loitering
munitions in the context of the debates about autonomous weapon systems. More specifically, it uses available open-source material to investigate whether the use of autonomous and automated technologies as part of the global development, testing, and use of loitering munitions since the 1980s has impacted emerging standards of human control over the use of force.