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A radar scope with three marked contacts A circular radar display with four concentric rings and a rotating sweep line. Three bright contacts are marked: one labelled air in the upper left, one labelled sea in the upper right, and one labelled land in the lower right. A few dimmer contacts are scattered between the rings. AIR · 4 EXAMPLES SEA · 3 EXAMPLES LAND · 3 EXAMPLES

Reference · Autonomous Weapons · 24 October 2026

Types of autonomous weapons

A field guide to ten systems in the air, at sea and on land, and how much each one decides

Autonomous weapons aren’t one machine. They run from a buried landmine to a drone that may choose its own target. Here are ten, drawn in plain outline, with what their makers, militaries and reporters actually say about who decides.

Browse the gallery Jump to the sources

Curated and edited by Lisa Pedrosa · Researched and drafted with Claude (Anthropic) · · 8 min read

Start with the simplest one. A mine sits in the ground and waits. Nobody aims it and nobody fires it. The ICRC calls it a rudimentary autonomous weapon, and that single sentence explains why this topic is so hard to pin down.

“Autonomous weapon” gets used for everything from that mine to a drone that chooses its own target in flight. The label covers a wide spread, and most arguments about it go sideways because each side is picturing a different machine. So this page lays ten of them side by side, grouped by where they operate: air, sea and land.

The working test

The ICRC defines autonomous weapons as any weapons that select and apply force to targets without human intervention. It adds that armed drones today are remote-controlled by human operators, so they don’t qualify on their own.

How to read the cards

Each card has a plain outline, an example, and a tag. The tag summarises what the cited sources say about who decides at the moment of attack. It isn’t a legal finding. Whether a system meets the characterisation in paragraph 25 of the Geneva experts’ report is a case-by-case question, which we cover in our piece on the UN text.

  • Machine decidesThe sources describe the system selecting and engaging targets itself.
  • ContestedSources disagree, or the system has more than one mode.
  • Human authorisesSources say a person approves each use of force.
  • Not statedThe sources don’t settle the question, so we don’t either.

Air

Four examples

Outline of a delta-wing drone above a radar dishA simple delta-wing drone circles above a ground radar dish. A dashed line runs from the drone down to the dish, and arcs show the radar signal.

Air · 01

Anti-radar loitering munition

Example: IAI Harpy

Machine decides, by design

A loitering munition flies out, circles an area and waits for something to hit. This kind hunts radars. Israel Aerospace Industries describes the Harpy as a fully autonomous and independent weapon system, one that searches, identifies, acquires, attacks and destroys enemy radar targets.

The maker’s own pitch is Fire and Forget – sensor & shooter combined in a single platform. The ICRC lists radar-hunting loitering munitions among its examples of autonomous weapons.

Sources: IAI Harpy NG brochure, ICRC, what you need to know about autonomous weapons

Outline of a small four-rotor drone inside a targeting ringA quadcopter seen from above, with four round rotors on diagonal arms and a small body in the middle. A dashed ring surrounds it.

Air · 02

Quadcopter loitering munition

Example: STM Kargu-2

Contested

A small rotary-wing drone that carries a warhead. STM calls the Kargu a Combat Proven Rotary Wing Loitering Munition System, lists a take-off weight of 7.7 kg with payload, and cites fully autonomous navigation.

On who fires, STM says the precision strike mission is fully performed by the operator, in line with the Man-in-the-Loop principle. A UN Panel of Experts report on Libya (S/2021/229, para 63) described “lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2” that were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition.

The maker and the UN panel describe the same system differently, and we haven’t found a public source that settles it. We read the UN passage through the ICRC casebook’s reproduction, not the original PDF.

Sources: STM Kargu page, ICRC casebook, Libya

Outline of a jet drone with two smaller wingmenA larger uncrewed jet seen from above flies in formation with two smaller jets behind and to each side.

Air · 03

Collaborative combat aircraft

Examples: YFQ-42A (General Atomics) and YFQ-44A Fury

Release rules not stated

Uncrewed jets meant to fly alongside piloted fighters. Air & Space Forces Magazine calls them semi-autonomous. In October 2026 an F-22 pilot directed a YFQ-44A in flight, and both types went to Creech in July.

The plan is at least 500 of these aircraft plus 500 Massed Modular Aircraft by 2032. There’s no production decision yet, and the builders are waiting on FY2027 funding.

The coverage we read doesn’t say whether a human must approve weapons release, so this card makes no claim either way.

Sources: Air & Space Forces Magazine, CCA coverage

Outline of a small drone flying toward three storage tanksA small delta-wing drone at the upper left follows a dashed curve down towards three round storage tanks on the ground at the right, with a ring around the tanks.

Air · 04

AI-guided one-way attack drone

Reported case: Zaporizhzhia strike, July 2026

Reported, hedged

Computing, relaying New York Times reporting, says a drone that hit Zaporizhzhia on 6 July was programmed to fly to a petrol station. Experts quoted there believe its onboard AI chose the target itself, most likely propane tanks. Investigators reportedly found an unencrypted Nvidia Jetson Orin module and no antennas. Three civilians died. Nvidia says the module is a consumer product.

Separately, Notre Dame’s Michael McAuliffe wrote in The Conversation that Russia reportedly fielded at least one fully autonomous model, the V2U, in early 2025.

Both items are reports, not confirmed findings. Treat the details as unverified until an official account appears.

Sources: Computing, 25 Aug 2026, McAuliffe via Cobb County Courier, 23 Sep 2026

Sea

Three examples

Outline of a small uncrewed boat on wavesA low, narrow boat with a short mast and a sensor dome sits on rippled water, with faint wake lines trailing behind it.

Sea · 01

Uncrewed surface vessel

Examples: Ukraine’s Sea Baby and Magura

Mostly remote, AI as backup

A small explosive-carrying boat. Defense News reports that Sea Baby is mainly remote-piloted, with AI assisting targeting and navigation when the link is jammed. A Magura sank a target ship at the Balikatan exercise on 24 June 2026.

USNI counted roughly a dozen Russian warships sunk or damaged since 2022. Each boat costs a few hundred thousand dollars, which is why they matter.

Sources: Defense News, 1 Jul 2026, USNI News, Sept 2025

Outline of a long uncrewed submarine below the waterlineA long rounded submarine with a tail fin and propeller sits well beneath a wavy waterline, with a few bubbles above it.

Sea · 02

Extra-large uncrewed submarine

Example: Boeing Orca

Weapon role not detailed

DefenseScoop calls the Orca a new class of autonomous submarine that can operate completely independently of a host vehicle. The Navy initiative behind it aims to travel long distances and lay mines without putting sailors in harm’s way.

The article doesn’t confirm that Orca itself lays mines, so we list it as autonomous, not as an armed example.

Sources: DefenseScoop, 20 Dec 2023

Outline of a ship-mounted gun dome with an incoming missileA rounded gun dome with a short barrel sits on a ship deck. A dashed arc from the upper left shows a missile heading towards it.

Sea · 03

Ship point-defence gun

Example: Phalanx CIWS

Machine decides, defensive

The Navy fact file says Phalanx automatically detects, evaluates, tracks, engages and performs kill assessment. It adds that this is the only deployed close-in weapon system capable of autonomously performing its own search, detect, evaluation, track, engage and kill assessment functions.

It first went aboard USS Coral Sea in 1980 and fires about 4,500 rounds a minute at anti-ship missiles and aircraft. It’s the oldest case on this page, and the clearest example of why speed pushes humans out of the loop.

Sources: Navy.mil Phalanx fact file

Land

Three examples

Outline of a fixed sentry gun on a post beside a fenceA camera and gun head mounted on a post stands beside a fence line, with a dashed arc showing its range.

Land · 01

Sentry gun

Example: Samsung SGR-A1

Human or machine, by mode

A fixed gun with cameras that watches a boundary. Samsung’s Myung Ho Yoo told IEEE Spectrum in 2007 that the ultimate decision about shooting should be made by a human, not the robot. Then he added: But the robot does have an automatic mode, in which it can make the decision.

The camera can pinpoint a target up to 500 m away. He wouldn’t say whether it was deployed in the DMZ.

Sources: IEEE Spectrum, 1 Mar 2007

Outline of a small tracked ground robot with a short gunA low tracked vehicle seen from the side, with a small turret, a short barrel and a camera on top.

Land · 02

Armed ground robot

Examples: Ukrainian unmanned ground vehicles

Human authorises

Small tracked vehicles that carry a gun or explosives. The BBC, relayed by DroneXL, reports that Tencore built over 2,000 of them in 2025 and expects about 40,000 orders in 2026.

Human operators authorise lethal force on every armed unit, a deliberate choice, though the robots can navigate, identify and track on their own. Devdroid’s roadmap includes autonomous engagement, so the line may move.

Sources: DroneXL, 8 Mar 2026

Cutaway of a buried landmine with a footstep aboveA cross-section of the ground with a flat round mine just under the surface and a dashed downward arrow above it showing a footstep.

Land · 03

Landmine

The oldest autonomous weapon

Machine triggers, by design

Nobody aims it and nobody fires it. The ICRC calls landmines rudimentary autonomous weapons: the weapon matches a sensor input, here pressure, to a “target profile” and applies force.

That framing is useful. It shows autonomy isn’t new, and it shows the issue isn’t intelligence but who sets the profile and who answers for what it hits.

Sources: ICRC, what you need to know about autonomous weapons

1980

Year Phalanx first went aboard a US warship, USS Coral Sea

2,000+

Ground robots Tencore built in Ukraine in 2025, per the BBC

7.7 kg

Take-off weight of a Kargu loitering munition, payload included

What the pictures leave out

Same hull, different decision

Lay the cards out and a pattern shows up. The hardware rarely tells you who decides. A Kargu can be flown by an operator or sent on a preset mission. A sentry gun has a manual and an automatic mode. Sea Baby is piloted until the link is jammed. The question lives in the software, the rules of use and the settings, which is exactly where outside observers can’t see.

That’s also why the age of a weapon tells you little. Phalanx dates to 1980 and does its own search, track and engage. A new ground robot with a gun may need a human to approve every shot. If you want the wider picture of where this goes next, our autonomous weapons explainer covers swarms and the policy fight, and The First AI War covers how AI targeting has been used in current conflict.

Ask of any system: who picks the target, and who can stop the shot?

How this was made

Researched and drafted with Claude (Anthropic), then edited and curated by Lisa Pedrosa. Quotations were checked against the cited source. The illustrations are original generic outlines, not drawings of any manufacturer’s design. Systems change fast, so tell us if a card has gone out of date.

Sources

Grouped by type. Several outlets block automated requests, so we confirmed those pages by reading them directly.

Definitions and law

  1. ICRC, What you need to know about autonomous weapons
  2. ICRC Casebook, Libya: use of lethal autonomous weapon systems (reproduces UN S/2021/229)

Manufacturers and militaries

  1. Israel Aerospace Industries, Harpy NG brochure
  2. STM, Kargu
  3. US Navy, Mk 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon System

Reporting and analysis

  1. Air & Space Forces Magazine, collaborative combat aircraft
  2. Computing, 25 Aug 2026 (relaying New York Times)
  3. Michael McAuliffe via Cobb County Courier, 23 Sep 2026 (first published in The Conversation)
  4. Defense News, 1 Jul 2026
  5. USNI News, September 2025 (fleet losses)
  6. DefenseScoop, 20 Dec 2023
  7. IEEE Spectrum, 1 Mar 2007
  8. DroneXL, 8 Mar 2026 (relaying BBC)
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