By akademiotoelektronik, 24/09/2022

Drones: the new face of war |News

Armed drones, these unmanned small aircraft, capable of flying for hours, and remote -controlled from bases far from intervention areas, have been used abundantly for ten years - and their contribution is increasing.

Whether it is first -generation predators on a recognition mission (equipped with extremely precise radars, sensors and cameras), or the "Hunter Killers" and Global Hawks of the second generation on combat mission (carrying a dozen missiles), armed drones will be called upon more and more to replace fighter planes.

Drones, weapon of the future?

The trend is inexorable, consider its followers, because they cost infinitely cheaper (between $ 10 and $ 15 million the unit instead of $ 50 to $ 150 million cost hunting aircraft or more than $ 1 billion that bombers cost),Because they are stealthy and more precise (of a declared precision of 60 % under bush, 85 % under Obama), because they save the lives of the pilots (but not those of the approximately 3,000 "activists" and victims"Collateral", including hundreds of civilians, murdered in ten years), and because they are easier to produce in large numbers.

The research and development of these aircraft will increase by $ 2 billion in 2011 to $ 4 billion in 2020.With the result that if 12 American attacks per drones occurred in Pakistan between 2004 and 2007, 38 took place in 2008, 55 in 2009, 128 in 2010, 76 in 2011 (in all 335 attacks have occurred since 2004, including280 since 2009).Those in Yemen have also been, for two years, significantly growing - a hundred in the territory of this single country, to which must be added 25 in Somali territory.

Thus, the United States has, over ten years, used more than 450 armed drones.From an average drone attack every 40 days under bush, the average is now one every 4 days under Obama.While the American Air Force had around fifty drones in 2001, a decade later there are more than 8,000, in ten years their number could reach 20,000.The Air Force today forms more drone operators than they drag on pilots for its fighter planes.The first now accumulates more flight hours than seconds!This is to say of the revolution that the arrival of drones leads.

The right.Ethics.Drones.

The climbing by these of the clandestine war continues without fanfare or public debate.However, their use is far from consensus and it raises several problems.First of all, their use and evaluation of their "performance" are held even more secret than those of traditional planes - so that all advanced figures are rather suspicious.

Drones are remote -controlled today from the bases of the CIA in Langley in Virginia and from those of the Air Force in Creech in Nevada, by teams specially trained by the CIA and the Air Force.

The political consequences of the use of drones in the targeted country are also problematic, insofar as these unilateral attacks take place without warning and without response-this use causing a strong anti-American resentment without surprise.

Then, the automated assassination, triggered at a height of 30,000 feet, is far from a classic military operation.If there is targeting error, or unjustified destruction, which is responsible?Who will be guilty of having committed a "war crime"?Consequently, on an ethical and legal level, the use of drones completely escapes accountability and, above all, conventions on the conduct of wars.

On the one hand, decision-making is itself more mechanized, due to increased automation of identification and destruction systems.On the other hand, international law is silent before the use of drones - a complex situation due to the wealthy transgression of borders, without detection and without notice, by these aircraft.

Finally, the United States will not indefinitely have monopoly on drone technology.The day is it far away when American forces will be attacked by ... a drone?Thus, around forty countries work on this technology, not counting on non -state actors who want to take advantage of the new assets it offers.And it will not be all the newcomers who will be concerned with limiting the use of drones.

We could thus attend a paradoxical form of "democratization" of the destruction offered by a technology so far kept rigorously secret.Drones ne sont pas une « balle magique ».This more precise form of war will not be more "democratic", and will not avoid some of the traps of classic military strategies: the propensity to resort (too) quickly to a weapon deemed very reliable and acceptable - with in return theErrors of judgment and the loss of innocent lives -, the "boomerang" effect of the arms race and the proliferation of drones, the violation of law and standards.

In conclusion, drones are only the beginning of greater robotization and still digitalization of war: thus the army tests patrol robots while the navy puts the test of small ships and submersibles automated.Are new technologies about to supplant the real soldiers?The irruption of the war shamelessly?One can believe that yes, and the whole challenge will be to ensure that humans will keep full control of this process in transition.

Charles-Philippe Davidturiale de la Chair Raoul-Dandurand

Les infolettres L’actualitéL’actualité politique

Receive a condensed political news, directly in your email.Highlights, analyzes, decrypts, discover the essentials to know everything about politics in Quebec and Canada.