Unmanned aerial vehicles are used across the world for civilian, commercial, as well as military applications. In fact, Drone Industry Insights (a commercial drone market consultancy in Germany) has identified "237 ways that drones revolutionize business" and released a 151-page report consisting of 237 applications and 37 real-life case studies throughout 15 industries including agriculture, energy, construction, and mining. The following is an incomplete list of some of those applications.
Aerospace Airlines and maintenance, repair, and operations contractors use UAVs for aircraft maintenance. In June 2015 EasyJet began testing UAVs in the maintenance of their Airbus A320s and in July 2016 at the Farnborough Airshow, Airbus (manufacturer of the A320), demonstrated the use of UAVs for the visual inspection of an aircraft. However, some aircraft maintenance professionals remain wary of the technology and its ability to properly catch potential dangers.
In 2002, a paper was published suggesting autonomous robotic helicopters for Mars exploration, possible for the Mars Scout Program. A number of advantages of a viable rotorcraft design were noted, including the ability to pass over difficult Mars terrain yet still visit multiple sites in situ. The short hop made by Lunar Surveyor 6 in 1967 was noted as example of hopping to visit another site. A small scout drone, launching from a Mars rover has been in development in the late 2010s, including US$23 million for a helicopter demonstration in 2018. The program for the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity possibly for the Perseverance rover would have a high resolution, downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data back to the rover. Drones on celestial bodies without atmosphere, like the Moon, have been proposed as drones reaching and sustaining above ground or sub-orbital flight through thrusters, creating the need for reaction mass.
Military
UAVs are used by a broad range of military forces, from Argentina to the US and also by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). As of January 2014, the U.S. military operated 7,362 RQ-11B Ravens; 145 AeroVironment RQ-12A Wasps; 1,137 AeroVironment RQ-20A Pumas; 306 RQ-16 T-Hawk small UAS; 246 Predators and MQ-1C Grey Eagles; 126 MQ-9 Reapers; 491 RQ-7 Shadows and 33 RQ-4 Global Hawk large systems. The MQ-9 Reaper costs $12 million while a manned F-22 costs over $120 million. ISIS announced a "Unmanned Aircraft of the Mujahideen" unit in January 2017 and use drones for both reconnaissance and to drop bombs.
Reconnaissance
The Tu-141 "Swift" reusable Soviet reconnaissance UAV is intended for reconnaissance to a depth of several hundred kilometers from the front line at supersonic speeds. The Tu-123 "Hawk" is a supersonic long-range reconnaissance UAV intended for conducting photographic and signals intelligence to a distance of 3200 km; it was produced beginning in 1964. The La-17P (UAV) is a reconnaissance UAV produced since 1963. In 1945 the Soviet Union began producing "doodlebug". 43 Soviet/Russian UAV models are known. In 2013, the U.S. Navy launched a UAV from a submerged submarine, the first step to "providing mission intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to the U.S. Navy's submarine force." Turkish forces have used the Bayraktar Tactical UAS for reconnaissance during operations in northern Syria.
Attack
UAVs avoid potential diplomatic embarrassment when a manned aircraft is shot down and the pilots captured. MQ-1 Predator UAVs armed with Hellfire missiles have been used by the U.S. as platforms for hitting ground targets. Armed Predators were first used in late 2001, mostly aimed at assassinating high-profile individuals (terrorist leaders, etc.) inside Afghanistan. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have used drones, adapting UAVs bought online, to drop explosives, primarily using quadcopters. Other groups in Syria are also thought to have used UAVs in attacks. A swarm of drones armed with bombs attacked Russian bases in western Syria in early January 2018.
Defense against UAVs
The US armed forces have no defense against low-level UAV attack, but the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization is working to repurpose existing systems. Two German companies are developing 40-kW lasers to damage UAVs. Other systems still include the OpenWorks Engineering Skywall and the Battelle DroneDefender. In late 2017, Russia established a ground-based unit to combat UAVs by jamming their controlling signals. They used jamming and anti-aircraft fire to defend against a swarm attack in Syria in early January 2018. ALKA is directed-energy weapon (DEW) system is a Turkish dual electromagnetic/laser weapon developed by Roketsan allegedly used to destroy one of GNC's Wing Loong II UAVs; if true, this would represent the first known time a vehicle mounted combat laser was used to destroy another combat vehicle during genuine wartime conditions.
Targets for military training
Since 1997, the US military has used more than 80 F-4 Phantoms converted into UAVs as aerial targets for combat training of human pilots. The F-4s were supplemented in September 2013 with F-16s as more realistically maneuverable targets.
Demining
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