U.S.
As drone tech proliferates, military landscape changes
Stars and Stripes
October 2, 2012
The primary mission of the MQ-1 Predator is interdiction and conducting armed reconnaissance against critical, perishable targets. When the MQ-1 is not actively pursuing its primary mission, it provides reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition in support of the Joint Forces commander. (Leslie Pratt/Courtesy U.S. Air Force)
The primary mission of the MQ-1 Predator is interdiction and conducting armed reconnaissance against critical, perishable targets. When the MQ-1 is not actively pursuing its primary mission, it provides reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition in support of the Joint Forces commander. (Leslie Pratt/Courtesy U.S. Air Force)
A student pilot and sensor operator man the controls of a MQ-9 Reaper in a ground-based cockpit during a training mission flown from Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, Syracuse, New York. (Ricky Best/New York Air National Guard)
The 33rd Brigade combat team of the Illinois National Guard was training with their four Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, July 19, 2012 at Camp Ripley in Little Falls, Minnesota. The aircraft is launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult. (Glenn Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT)
As other nations try to catch up to the U.S. arsenal of some 7,500 drones in the sky, a new story from CNN questions what will happen to the global landscape if other militaries also launched secretive attacks.
Much has changed since 2002, when the U.S. had a monopoly on unmanned military aircraft, and the story uses recent examples of China unveiling over two dozen drone models at an air show and Iran’s claims to having one that can fly to Israel as proof that other countries want access.
Over 70 countries now own some sort of aerial drone capacity, but only a few of those can be used for attacking purposes, according to the report. Only the U.S., United Kingdom and Israel are known to have launched drone strikes.
In addition to the nation-by-nation proliferation of drone technology, for which the story lists examples from the Middle East to Europe, it also notes that even Libyan opposition forces trying to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi bought a sophisticated drone from a Canadian company last year.
Ultimately, the story asks one main question: With no international guidelines for military engagement via unmanned aerial drones, is the world ready for that power to be everywhere?