CNAS Releases Open Source Dataset on Drone Proliferation

Washington, September 10, 2024 - Today, the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released the Drone Proliferation Dataset by Molly Campbell.

As drones become an increasingly significant factor on 21st century battlefields, the countries supplying cutting-edge drone technology are changing. While Israel and the United States have historically leveraged their domination of the military drone market to regulate proliferation, the entry of Iran, China, and Turkey has triggered a dramatic increase in global proliferation.

The dataset tracks global transfers of military-grade aerial drones between 1995 and September 1, 2023. It was created to support a larger body of work on drones conducted by the CNAS Defense Program examining trends in drone proliferation and employment in recent conflicts. Analysis of this dataset can be found in the June 2024 report, Swarms over the Strait: Drone Warfare in a Future Fight to Defend Taiwan, by Dr. Stacie Pettyjohn, Hannah Dennis, and Molly Campbell.

CNAS published this dataset so that it may serve as a primary resource for researchers, policymakers, and the media. It can be used to further analyze trends in global drone proliferation, transfers by drone type, and region-specific drone imports. Researchers can download the complete dataset and codebook here.