ACLED recorded around 670 weaponized-drone events since 2018, with more than 72% occurring between January 2025 and 21 August 2026.

Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) is a disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project. ACLED collects information on the dates, actors, locations, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and protest events around the world. The ACLED team conducts analysis to describe, explore, and test conflict scenarios, and makes both data and analysis open for free use by the public. ACLED is a registered non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status in the United States. ACLED receives financial support from the Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF’d), the European Commission, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Tableau Foundation. ACLED was created by Clionadh Raleigh, a Professor of Political Violence and Geography at the University of Sussex, in 2005 as a component of her PhD work. Since 2014, ACLED has operated as a non-profit, non-governmental organization incorporated in Wisconsin. In 2022, ACLED expanded coverage to the entire world, collecting data in real time and publishing weekly updates.