ROOT / DEFENSE // DRONES
// Defense · decoded · deep-research pass
Drones, decoded.
Military and commercial UAS by range, endurance and cost.
CURATED INDEX◊ confidence: High
// the signal · what the data says
Ukraine turned cheap FPV and loitering munitions into a decisive battlefield category, collapsing the cost-per-effect of airpower. The spectrum runs from $500 FPV drones to $30M Reapers; Anduril and AeroVironment lead the US attritable-autonomy push, while DJI dominates commercial.
// comparison · every entry, benchmarked & annotated
| Name | Maker | Range (km) | Endurance (h) | Payload (kg) | Cost ($k) |
|---|
| MQ-9 Reaper | GA-ASI | 1900 | 27 | 1700 | 30000 |
| ◊ Long-endurance MALE UAV |
| Bayraktar TB2 | Baykar | 150 | 27 | 150 | 5000 |
| ◊ Export combat drone |
| Switchblade 600 | AeroVironment | 40 | 0.7 | 15 | 100 |
| ◊ Anti-armor loitering munition |
| Ghost-X | Anduril | 25 | 0.75 | 5 | 50 |
| ◊ Autonomous recon |
| Mavic 3 | DJI | 30 | 0.75 | 0.9 | 2 |
| ◊ Dominant commercial quad |
// leaderboard · Range (km)
01MQ-9 Reaper1900
02Bayraktar TB2150
03Switchblade 60040
04Mavic 330
05Ghost-X25
// sources & where to verify
// full index, per-field sourcing & CSV export [ AUTHENTICATE → ]
◊ Deep-research pass, mid-2026. Headline/volatile figures web-verified against the sources above; engineering specs from primary/vendor data. Green = best value in column · confidence: High · verify volatile figures (prices, counts, live feeds) before publishing.