US and Iran account for 86% of military drone exports
Shafaq News
The United States and Iran supplied 86% of the 16,822 military drones exported worldwide between 2022 and 2025, with nearly all of them going to opposite sides of the war in Ukraine, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) compiled by Visual Capitalist.
The United States exported 7,593 drones and Iran 6,800, or 45.1% and 40.4% of the global total, respectively. Ukraine received 95% of US drone exports, while 99% of Iran's went to Russia.
SIPRI counts drones weighing at least 150 kilograms, along with one-way attack drones and loitering munitions, which are designed to strike once and be destroyed. Small first-person-view and commercial drones are largely excluded. Single-use drones make up 97% of the global total, which explains how a few wartime transfers can run into the thousands.
Nearly all of Iran’s recorded exports were Shahed-136 drones, including units produced in Russia under Iranian license, which SIPRI counts as Iranian transfers.
Exports fall off sharply below the top two. Germany ranked third with 1,000 drones, followed by Poland with 690 and Turkiye with 381. The seven smallest exporters, from Czechia to Sweden, delivered 89 drones combined.
Iran Overtakes The US In 2025
US drone exports rose from 1,010 in 2022 to 3,219 in 2024, then dropped to 402 in 2025, the year new US military aid to Ukraine came to a halt. Iran delivered about 2,000 drones a year from 2023 to 2025, including 2,002 in 2025, five times the US total.
Most US drones shipped in 2025 went to Taiwan, which received 291 loitering munitions. Ukraine received 100 US-made loitering munitions that year, paid for by Britain.
Turkiye's Wider Reach
Although it ranked fifth by volume, Turkiye sold drones to 28 countries, more than half of the 54 that imported military drones and nearly three times as many as the United States or China, which supplied 10 each. Its buyers range from 12 African countries to NATO members Poland and Romania, as well as Pakistan, Kuwait and Ukraine.
About three-quarters of Turkiye's exports were larger, reusable aircraft such as the Bayraktar TB2. It supplied 281 of the 486 such drones exported worldwide, or 58%. Measured by SIPRI's trend-indicator value, which weights weapons by military capability rather than units, Turkiye was the largest drone exporter of the period.
