Attrition: That Sounds Like a Lot

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June 17, 2007: The British Ministry of Defense revealed that it had lost about 90 UAVs in the past seven years. That's about one a month, and is normal for a heavily used UAV force. Many of those British losses were of the seven pound Desert Hawk, which, like all UAVs of its weight class, are expected to be used until they fail. Many of these "micro-UAVs" are not expected to survive more than a few dozen landings. However, enemy fire or bad weather often gets them first.