The cheapest useful attack drone now costs less than a rifle did a generation ago, and the factory turning out thousands a month does not look like a defense plant. Precision has become abundant, which changes what an army has to protect.
This section covers strike systems and the effectors built to counter them. Cruise and ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, air-launched munitions, loitering munitions, one-way attack drones, reconnaissance and armed unmanned aircraft, uncrewed surface vessels, and the counter-UAS side that now runs from guns and nets to high-energy lasers and high-power microwave.
Directed energy is treated on its own terms here. A 50-kilowatt laser needs roughly 150 to 250 kilowatts of prime power and somewhere to dump the waste heat, so the hard part is usually the ship or vehicle carrying it rather than the beam. Range figures are reported with the weather they were achieved in.
Production rate is reported alongside performance wherever a figure exists. Combat use is described from what can be verified, with claims by a party to a conflict attributed to that party.
U.S. Navy officials confirmed a first at-sea launch of a LUCAS one-way attack drone from the Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Santa Barbara in the Arabian Gulf. The test used a rocket-assisted launch from the ship’s flight deck. The flight took place
Video from Redstone Arsenal shows an Army hypersonics director telling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the Dark Eagle weapon can reach about 3,500 kilometers. Another officer, filmed near the launcher, described its warhead as “under 30 pounds” and said the payload is
The U.S. Marine Corps has backed live evaluations of the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System, known as LUCAS, at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The Army described LUCAS as a one-way attack aircraft and said the work supports the
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine has begun using the Sapsan ballistic missile in combat. He spoke to journalists on Dec. 9 and declined to discuss targets or the number of shots fired. “Ukraine is already using the Neptune, the long-range Neptune, the
General Dynamics Land Systems and AeroVironment have tested a turret-mounted launcher that lets an M1A2 Abrams SEPv3 fire Switchblade loitering munitions during a U.S. Army demonstration in Texas. The companies said the kit, called Precision Effects and Reconnaissance Canister-Housed, launched a Switchblade
A photo that began circulating online in early December shows a Ukrainian F-16AM carrying two seven-shot 70mm rocket pods that match the LAU-131 family, mounted under the wings. A targeting pod appears on the intake station on the right side. The weapons
The U.S. Army plans to move from buying roughly tens of thousands of drones a year to acquiring at least one million in the next two to three years and then more than one million every year by 2028. Secretary of the
Berlin – Germany’s naval laser demonstrator has moved from sea to shore. The Rheinmetall–MBDA system transferred to the Bundeswehr’s Laser Competence Centre at WTD 91 in Meppen after a year of trials on the air-defense frigate Sachsen. Company materials note “fully operational
As of 28 October 2025, Castelion holds U.S. Navy and U.S. Army awards to integrate its Blackbeard hypersonic weapon on operational platforms, with live-fire events in scope. A Navy study conducted in 2024 defined strict size and weight limits for an air-carried
Russia’s leadership announced a new long-range flight for the 9M730 Burevestnik (Skyfall) on Oct 21, describing a subsonic cruise of about 14,000 kilometers in roughly 15 hours. The briefing ran on camera and signaled a push toward preparation for service. No telemetry,
