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Drone Loiter Munitions Now Available
Loiter munitions that are drone based have been making appearances in the battlefield.
Control view look at a Ukrainian “delivering” a loiter munition drone to Russian forces. #UkraineRussianWar pic.twitter.com/14DFnyXf7L
— Monger (@Monger_co) November 4, 2022
Historically, munitions of this kind did not make an appearance until the 1980's:
Initially, loitering munitions were not referred to as such but rather as 'suicide UAVs' or 'loitering missiles'. Different sources point at different projects as originating the weapon category. The early 1980s initial Israeli Delilah variants[11][12] or the failed US AGM-136 Tacit Rainbow program[13][14] are mentioned by some sources.
Fans of Iain M. Banks may recall the loiter-drone from The Algebraist (2004):
The ship's ruins... had been cordoned off and a series of airborne loiter-drones posted on indefinite guard above, just in case.
Even earlier, Philip E. High described loitering micro-missiles in his 1968 novel Invader on my Back:
As the troops left the city, the top guns of the leading guilds took a hand, and they knew their business: weapons with curved or variating trajectories, weapons which fired around corners, micro-missiles proceeding at walking pace until within ten feet of the target.
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