![]() ![]() History First development and terminology Northrop AGM-136 Tacit Rainbow on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Starting in the 2000s, loitering weapons were developed for additional roles ranging from relatively long-range strikes and fire support down to tactical, very short range battlefield systems that fit in a backpack. Loitering weapons first emerged in the 1980s for use in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) role against surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and were deployed in that role with a number of military forces in the 1990s. As such, they can also be considered a nontraditional ranged weapon.Īn Iranian HESA Shahed 136 long range loitering munition They differ from cruise missiles in that they are designed to loiter for a relatively long time around the target area, and from UCAVs in that a loitering munition is intended to be expended in an attack and has a built-in warhead. Loitering munitions fit in the niche between cruise missiles and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs or combat drones), sharing characteristics with both. ![]() Loitering munitions enable faster reaction times against hidden targets that emerge for short periods without placing high-value platforms near the target area and also allow more selective targeting as the attack can be changed mid-flight or aborted. A loitering munition (also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone) is a kind of aerial weapon with a built-in munition ( warhead), which can loiter (wait passively) around the target area until a target is located it then attacks the target by crashing into it.
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