Strange Word Game: What is a "Suicide Drone"?

Gemini-generated image

I saw this news story a while back and decided to copy it here as a topic for future consideration. 

BREAKING: 3 American soldier killed and at least 24 wounded after a suicide drone strike on a U.S. base in Jordan right on the border with Syria. Iran and it’s proxy groups are the main suspects. Major escalation!

Now as I understand it, suicide is the intentional taking of one's own life. It is something people do, and maybe lemmings. But does a machine intentionally take its own life? I mean, wouldn't the drone have been programmed to self-destruct? Does the drone have a mind of its own and volition? Does this mean that missiles should be called suicide missiles now? And why not call mines in a mine field suicide mines when they blow up? Should bombs be called suicide bombs?

Yet the phrase suicide drone has become a common part of our current vernacular, as illustrated here in these statements from X.com:

---Watch how HMS Diamond (D34) Type 45 air-defence destroyer of the #RoyalNavy targeted and destroyed one of the Kamikaze/Suicide drones of #Iran's #Houthi rebels.

---JUST IN: Multiple US senators, Including Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton, and John Cornyn, are now calling for direct strikes on Iranian forces after the deadly suicide drone attack that killed three American service-members and injured dozens more

---China has developed a suicide drone considered the most cost-efficient in the world, with a price not exceeding $10,000. This drone, named Feilong-300D, is the cheapest in its class compared to well-known counterparts, such as the Iranian Shahed-136.

---According to REUTERS, the LUKOIL oil refinery in Volgograd has stopped operating after a Ukrainian suicide drone attack last night.

---An AQ 100 Bayonet suicide drone (called the HF-1 by the Germans) during an attack on Belaya Sloboda in the Kursk region. The AI software is supplied by the German company Helsing, and production is financed by Germany.

Even if inaccurately named, what I find disturbing is seeing how many countries are flooding the world with these small, medium and large military craft. In today's X feed you will see drones being manufactured in Russia, the U.S. and China (in massive quantities) but also in more than 20 other countries including, but not limited to, U.K., Canada, German, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Iran, North Korea, Israel, Ukraine, Algeria, Turkey, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Brazil, Nigeria, and Indonesia.

How do you like them apples? What are the implications for future warfare? 

"Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird... It's a plane... It's a Suicide Drone!"