• Air Warfare

  MBDA team picked for France's Larinae loitering munition project

  30th June 2023

  The French defence innovation agency (AID) has selected a consortium led by MBDA for its Larinae loitering munition project.

• Land Warfare

  Production ramps up for Swiss Piranha 120mm mortar

  7th December 2023

  The Swiss Army has ordered 48 Piranha 3+ vehicles equipped with RUAG Cobra 120mm mortars, which can fire up to 10 rounds per minute and have a range of 9,000m. The vehicles have a Scania diesel engine, a Kongsberg RWS with a 12.7mm MG and an applique passive armour package.

• Land Warfare

  Nurol adds loitering munition launch option to tactical armoured vehicles

  28th July 2023

  Nurol Makina's latest TWAV, the NMS-Light 4x4, was shown at IDEF 2023 with launchers for the locally developed Spira ILGAR smart loitering munition.

• Air Warfare

  South Korea orders F-35 fighter munitions

  5th December 2023

  The US has greenlit a potential Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to South Korea, entailing a package of F-35 ammunition valued at around $271 million.

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Uvision sees loitering munition market blooming and diverging at Paris Air Show

  23rd June 2023

  At the Paris Air Show, Israeli loitering munition manufacture Uvision said it saw the market for the systems blooming but also diverging into different sets of requirements.

• Defence Notes

  India’s Defence Acquisition Council green lights $26.8 billion in spending

  4th December 2023

  India’s Defence Acquisition Council has unveiled a list of equipment needs and has stipulated that 98% of the contract value must be spent domestically. It added that 50% of the indigenous content should be in the form of material, components and software made in India.

• Air Warfare

  Dubai Airshow 2023: MBDA to develop and build ‘smart missiles’ in UAE

  14th November 2023

  In a bid to bolster its strategic partnership with the UAE and further its missile capabilities, MBDA established the UAE Missile Engineering Centre earlier this year from where it will produce so-called 'smart weapons'.

• Uncrewed Vehicles

  Paris Air Show: BlueBird debuts SpyX loitering munition

  19th June 2023

  At Paris Air Show on 19 June, BlueBird Aero Systems debuted a new loitering munition, the SpyX, with a 50km operational range.

• Air Warfare

  Paris Air Show: France makes decision on medium-range loitering antitank munition

  19th June 2023

  A team consisting of Nexter, EOS Technologie and TRAAK has been awarded a contract to develop an armour-piercing loitering munition with a secondary ISR capability for the French Army.

• Air Warfare

  Paris Air Show: France makes decision on medium-range loitering antitank munition

  19th June 2023

  A team consisting of Nexter, EOS Technologie and TRAAK has been awarded a contract to develop an armour-piercing loitering munition with a secondary ISR capability for the French Army.

• Land Warfare

  Destruction of expired reserves of ATACMS ‘is not true’, says Pentagon

  9th January 2024

  Recent rumours claimed that the DoD would destroy its overdue MGM-140 stockpiles instead of donating them to Ukraine.

• Air Warfare

  UK P-8 Poseidons to get Sting Ray Mod 1 torpedoes

  1st December 2023

  The UK MoD has confirmed the selection of the BAE Systems Sting Ray Mod 1 torpedo as the future torpedo capability for its P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) fleet, alongside the US Navy's Mk54 weapon.

• Defence Notes

  US Pentagon to reduce investments in main acquisition programmes over FY2025

  12th March 2024

  The DoD requested nearly US$850 billion to fund operations over the next fiscal year. Despite the amount being 1% higher than the FY2024 budget request, it has not covered the 3% inflation rate, which could impact the DoD’s main programmes in the medium and long term.

• Air Warfare

  Israel prepares F-35s for potential mission in Iran

  21st February 2024

  The threat of Iranian nuclear weapons has led Israel to make changes to its F-35s while Russian actions in Syria have acted as a catalyst for action in developing anti-jamming systems.

• Air Warfare

  Hero loitering munition air-launched from helicopter in US Army demo

  13th June 2023

  UVision has successfully demonstrated the airborne launch and engagement of a ground target by its Hero 120 loitering munition, fired from a Bell 412 helicopter.

Programme Results - Defence Insight

• Loitering munitions

  NCSIST Loitering Munition [Taiwan]

  Programme Background Possible Purchase At Taichung in March 2023, NCSIST unveiled the loitering munition. The munition showed the country's focus on asymmetric capabilities to defend ...

• Loitering munitions

  Loitering Aerial Munitions (LAM) [India]

  Programme Background Kadet Defence Systems announced in May 2024 that 50 of its Loitering Aerial Munitions (LAM) drones would be delivered to the Indian Armed ...

• Loitering munitions

  Loitering Munitions [Thailand]

  Programme Background Roadmap In February 2024, the RTAF unveiled its White Paper 2024. Incorporating lessons from the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Israel-Hamas War, and other events such ...

• Loitering munitions

  Hero-30 [Italy]

  Programme Background Italian Budget As revealed by the Italian MoD's Multi-Year Defence Programme Document for 2021-2023, a new procurement programme to acquire a loitering munition ...

• Loitering munitions

  Loitering Munition PODS [UK]

  Programme Background PODS As the Royal Navy states, Persistent Operational Deployment Systems (PODS) are "interchangeable modules that can be fitted to the surface fleet. Similar in ...

• Loitering munitions

  Mini-Harpy [Israeli Navy]

  Programme Background MADEX 2023 At MADEX 2023, IAI displayed the Mini-Harpy, dubbed the Green Dragon, loitering munition in a 12-system launcher mounted to an Israel Navy Sa'ar 6 ...

• Loitering munitions

  Harop [Israeli Navy]

  Programme Background MADEX 2023 At MADEX 2023, IAI displayed the Mini-Harpy, dubbed the Green Dragon, loitering munition in a 12-system launcher mounted to an Israel ...

• Loitering munitions

  Long-Range Attack Munition (LRAM) [USMC]

  Programme Background Force Design 2030 The USMC Force Design 2030 is a modernisation effort to create a lighter, more agile maritime force. The update to ...

• Loitering munitions

  KaGeM-V3 [Pakistan]

  Programme Background In August 2023, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) released a video showcasing the KaGeM V3, Akinci and other Baykar products. According to SavunmaSanayiSt, ...

• Loitering munitions

  Organic Precision Fire - Light (OPF-L) [USMC]

  Programme Background Force Design 2030 The USMC Force Design 2030 is a modernisation effort to create a lighter, more agile maritime force. In May 2022, an annual ...

• Loitering munitions

  N-Raven / IRIX [Greece]

  Programme Background Unveiled during the Defence Exhibition Athens (DEFEA 2023) exhibition, IRIX is a Greek version of the N-Raven loitering munition developed by Paramount in ...

• Loitering munitions

  Loitering Munitions (Forecast) [Germany]

  Programme Background Three Systems In April 2023, Germany reportedly ordered three different loitering munition systems to further assess their suitability for use by the German Armed ...

• Loitering munitions

  Loitering Munitions [Spain]

  Programme Background Fuerza 35 Project This project is a Spanish Army initiative to create and maintain an effective force by forming flexible and cohesive operational organisations, ...

• Loitering munitions

  Organic Precision Fire - Mounted (OPF-M) [USMC]

  Programme Background Armed Vehicles In June 2021, Shephard reported that the USMC had selected the HERO-120 for the OPF-M programme. The USMC planned to integrate ...

• Loitering munitions

  Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) Loitering Munitions [USSOCOM]

  Programme Background Launcher Kit Since 2020, Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has been testing various ways to add a launcher kit to its Combatant Craft Medium (CCM) vessels. Defence ...

Equipment Results - Defence Insight

• Loitering munitions

  Scalpel

  The Scalpel is a Russian loitering munition produced by Vostok Design Bureau. Similar in design to the Lancet-3, the munition is described as a multipurpose loitering munition ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - small

  Havoc

  The Havoc is an attack UAV manufactured by Astra Systems for long-range strikes and operations that require increased lethality. The Havoc comes in various variants: the ...

• Loitering munitions

  DEV-3

  The DEV-3 is an Armenian loitering munition manufactured by Davaro. Visually similar to Isreal Aerospace Industries' (IAI) Harop, the platform is fitted with a 10kg ...

• Loitering munitions

  Loitering Unmanned Aircraft Type I

  In March 2023, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) unveiled a tube-launched loitering munition. Similar to the configuration of Switchblade 300, the platform has ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - mini

  Hunter 2

  The Hunter 2 is a mini-UAV and loitering munition unveiled by EDGE subsidiary HALCON at the Dubai Airshow 2021. The platform is tube-launched and is ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - fixed-wing, Military UAS - mini

  Papydrone-1800

  The Papydrone-1800 is a low-cost loitering munition and UAV that is primarily constructed from cardboard. Manufactured by Peach, a Korean startup, the drone is designed to be ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - micro, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  Lanius

  The Lanius is a micro-UAV and loitering munition manufactured by Elbit Systems. It can conduct BLOS ISR and attack missions autonomously in complex environments, a capability ...

• Loitering munitions

  Harop

  The Harop, and the Maritime Harop variant, is a standoff loitering munition system manufactured by Isreal Aerospace Industries (IAI). Equipped with EO/IR seekers, the combat-proven platform ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - micro, Military UAS - rotary-wing

  Viper 300

  Viper 300 is a tube-launched loitering munition from SpearUAV. Part of the wider Viper family of drones, the loitering munition is designed to equip the dismounted soldier with ...

• Loitering munitions, Military UAS - fixed-wing

  HAASTA

  The HAASTA is a loitering munition and UAV revealed at MSPO 2023.  Designed by Łukasiewicz Institute of Aviation in collocation with Eurotech, the loitering munition is primarily designed ...

• Air: aerial targets

  Scrab II

  The SCRAB II is a twin-turbine drone used for air defence training, air-to-air weapons training and evaluation. Manufactured by SCR, it can host various payloads and, ...

• Loitering munitions

  RAM 2

  The Ram 2, or RAM II, is a loitering munition manufactured by a collaboration of Ukrainian companies.  Based on the Leleka-100 UAV, the loitering munition can carry several ...

• Loitering munitions

  Mini Harpy

  The Mini-Harpy is a multi-purpose loitering munition manufactured by Isreal Aerospace Industries.  Equipped with an EO/IR camera payload and up to 8kg warhead, the loitering ...

• Loitering munitions

  Lancet-E

  Unveiling at Army-2024, the Lancet-E is a UAS comprised of the Product 51-E loitering munition, the Product 52-E loitering munition and the Zala 421 Z-16E ISR drone. Commonly, ...

• Air: aerial targets, Loitering munitions

  Super Simsek

  The Super Simsek (Süper Şimşek) is an improved version of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) training drone turned loitering munition.  The drone has reconfigurable payload options ...