Why “Attritable” Is the Most Important Word In Air Combat Right Now

Like other aviation sectors, the military aviation sector has its fair share of fads and buzzwords, many of which are often not well understood by the general audience, reporters, or sometimes military acquisition personnel themselves. Before 2022, one of the most notable buzzwords in military drone procurement was “swarming,” but by mid-2026, this has at least largely been supplanted by “attritable” as well as “affordable” and “scalable.” Those last two words directly relate to the broader concept of attritable. “Attritable” is something that means very different things in different contexts. As explained below, it has a very different meaning in…