Drones and the Legality and Ethics of War
Franklin C. Annis
The use of drones is a natural evolution in the science of war. On the tactical level, militaries often seek to damage their opponent’s forces while presenting the least amount of risk to their own soldiers. Armed drones seem to present a means of engaging in low risk tactical engagements. Early examples of the attempted use of drones occurred in WWII during Operation Aphrodite where B-17 “Flying Fortress†bombers were outfitted with radio control systems flown towards harden Nazi targets while being controlled by pilots in an escorting “mothership.â€
Unfortunately, the technology wasn’t sufficiently advanced at the time to achieve any hits on target. Through the latter half of the 20th century, this technology continued to be refined but was mostly restricted to reconnaissance missions. By the mid-1990s, General Atomics developed the famed RQ-1 “Predator†drone prized for its small size, reconnaissance capabilities, and later its ability to carry AGM-114 “Hellfire†missiles and other armaments.[ii] The use of Predator and other modern drones in the Long War fulfilled the promise of conducting offensive attacks against an enemy without any risk to those piloting these systems. But while tactical objectives can now be easily achieved with drones, their ability to advance strategic objectives and secure peace is still very much in question.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/drones-and-legality-and-ethics-war
