Eurosatory 2026 produced a figure that has been repeated across the defense press ever since. According to reports, the long-range, deep-strike loitering munition sector has grown from effectively nothing three years ago into a market worth an estimated $13.169 billion. It’s a large number and reflects how quickly this class of weapon has moved from the margins to the center of European procurement planning.
Yet the figure rewards a closer look. The systems behind it, including the Fire Point FP-1, the Shahed-136 and the effectors that dominated the ELSA discussions in Paris, are not loitering munitions in the strict sense. They are one-way attack drones that fly a pre-planned route to a fixed target hundreds of kilometers away, rather than holding over a contested area to search out a target and strike on command. Both capabilities matter, but they are not the same and counting them together has consequences for how militaries understand what they are buying.
