Dazzling New Weapons Require New Rules For War -- David Ignatius, Washington Post
A new arsenal of drones and satellite-guided weapons is changing the nature of warfare. America and its NATO allies possess these high-tech weapons, but smaller countries want them, too. Here's an inside glimpse of how the process of technology transfer works:
A year ago, Saudi Arabia was fighting a nasty border war against the Houthi rebels across its frontier with Yemen. The Saudis began bombing Houthi targets inside Yemen on Nov. 5, 2009, but the airstrikes were inaccurate, and there were reports of civilian casualties.
Read more ....
My Comment: There are still limits in using these weapons .... I know because they have been used in the hunt for Osama bin laden and they have not been successful.
Still .... on the battlefield these weapon platforms have proven to be incredibly effective, as the French-Saudi Arabia military alliance has shown on the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border. And while the U.S. may argue for some controls on these technologies, Pandora's Box is now open and countries with military technologies that are equal to the U.S. are more than eager to either sell them to third parties and/or to use them themselves.
1 comment:
"Washington has been weighing whether to include versions of its Predator drones in an arms sale to the kingdom."
if the US says no, the UK would love to sell its Mantis to the Saudi's (or the French their Heron copy/Eagle)
Post a Comment