The world is entering a new era of drone warfare. Drones are proliferating on the battlefield in both small and large conflicts. They are making warfare deadlier and easier to wage, granting increased firepower to nonstate actors and insurgent movements, in addition to enhancing the capacity of regular militaries. Fundamentally, drones offer several advantages . Unmanned systems allow militaries to conduct operations without risk to their own personnel; the human cost of deploying a drone is minimal. They are also effective weapons, enabling strikes against targets from remote distances. Compared with other types of weapons systems such as precision-guided missiles, drones have low acquisition and operating costs. Moreover, few states possess the requisite weaponry (at least at present) to defend against drones. Finally, drones are multifunctional. Not only are they adept at conducting kinetic strikes, but they can perform other critical functions, such as carrying out battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance.

In Sudan, which has been engulfed in a ruinous civil war since 2023, drones have been devastating instruments of destruction. The conflict has killed as many as 400,000 people and displaced more than 12 million from their homes. Deployed indiscriminately against both civilian and military targets, the unconstrained use of drones by both sides has contributed to the war’s growing death toll and also inflicted heavy damage against vital infrastructure such as hospitals, airports, military bases, and ports.

In Sudan, which has been engulfed in a ruinous civil war since 2023, drones have been devastating instruments of destruction. The conflict has killed as many as 400,000 people and displaced more than 12 million from their homes. Deployed indiscriminately against both civilian and military targets, the unconstrained use of drones by both sides has contributed to the war’s growing death toll and also inflicted heavy damage against vital infrastructure such as hospitals, airpo