Briefing: Aerial Drones As Weapons Of War

A MQ-9 Reaper drone at a USAF base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. SIPA Photo

From Christian Science Monitor:

They have been used to attack militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But are their benefits outweighed by backlash on the ground?

What is a drone?

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are remote-controlled aircraft that usually carry cameras to gather intelligence and sometimes missiles to kill.

They range in size from the five-pound Raven, which is launched by an infantryman the way a child throws a paper airplane and costs $25,000 (though a full "system" consisting of three of the planes, a ground control station, and imaging equipment goes for $250,000), to the Reaper, which has a wingspan of 66 feet and is equipped with Hellfire missiles and 500-pound bombs and has a price tag of $17 million.

Though the Navy flew unmanned planes during World War II, the technology didn't catch on until the 2002 invasion of Afghanistan. Then, the US only had a handful of them. Today, there are 7,000 of them in the US arsenal.

Read more ....

My Comment: These weapons of war are terribly effective. And while they have had a profound impact on the battlefield, one can easily contemplate what the next succeeding generations of aerial drones will bring.

In short ..... as much as there is opposition and concern on what these weapon systems can do .... this will pale when compared to what future systems will be able to do in any war theater.

We are just at the beginning of a new age of warfare.