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Unmanned Aerial Systems Military Incidents

Unmanned Aerial Systems Military Incidents

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The following is adapted from “Unmanned Aerial Systems’ Influences on Conflict Escalation Dynamics” by John Schaus and Kaitlyn Johnson. We encourage corrections, additions, and suggestions. Please direct all messages to aerospace@csis.org.

Constraints

In line with the methodology of “Unmanned Aerial Systems’ Influences on Conflict Escalation Dynamics,” this figure only takes into account UAS which are in the scope of this study. The project narrowed its consideration from all possible UAS to only those that are mentioned in the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Category I and II, and in the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) UAS Group 4 & 5 (See figure 1). Taken together, these different categorizations limit the UAS examined to those that have relatively long ranges (greater than 500 km), payloads greater than 300 kg or weight above 1320 kg, or some combination of these.

UAS categories included in this examination.

For international incidents, the study team used best judgement to assess how international UAS would potentially fall in similar categories as those described prior. If the UAS was similar in scope, the study team added said incident to the record.