Attritable

Attritable is a deliberate design and budgeting philosophy: an aircraft cheap enough that losing it in combat is an acceptable, planned-for cost rather than a programmatic crisis. The term sits between expendable systems — loitering munitions consumed on every flight — and traditional exquisite platforms like crewed fighters, where a single loss is strategically significant. An attritable aircraft is meant to be recovered and reused when possible, but its price point, typically a small fraction of a crewed aircraft, means commanders can accept risks that would be unthinkable with a manned platform.

The concept shapes engineering. Attritable designs trade away the refinements that drive cost — extreme survivability features, long depot cycles, gold-plated sensors — in favor of manufacturability, modular payloads, and rapid production. The goal is a platform built fast, upgraded in blocks, and fielded in numbers large enough to absorb losses.

The word entered mainstream procurement through collaborative combat aircraft programs, where uncrewed escorts scout, jam, and take hits so crewed aircraft do not have to. The underlying logic is economic attrition reversed: impose costs on the defender by making your own losses cheap.