A US veterans’ organizations is running an advertisement in Air Force Times urging military drone operators to refuse orders to fly attack missions. This comes as the Air Force encounters trouble retaining drone operators due to the stress of the job.
The ad was funded by KnowDrones, an organization that aims to achieve an outright ban on the use of weaponized drones
Many argue that drone operators do not know what they’re getting into when they sign up for the job.
“What this ad is trying to do is to say, ‘look at this now, understand the consequences and follow your conscience and do the right thing,” KnowDrones coordinator Nick Mottern told RT. “Given the fact that the president and Congress won’t act to stop this, we’re appealing directly to the people who are being ordered to do the killing, and who have to bear the weight of this on their conscience to put a stop to it."
WNU Editor: A good number of ex-military personnel have signed this letter urging drone pilots to refuse orders to fly attack missions .... Former US military personnel urge drone pilots to walk away from controls (The Guardian). And while I doubt that this specific campaign will have an impact, it is still noteworthy because it is a sign of a trend that as drone operations continue to escalate, opposition to its use will probably also escalate.
In Pakistan, Predators are known as 'Avenging Angels' which tells you a lot more balanced view of how the enemy views our drone strikes into the tribal areas.
ReplyDeleteWhile there is nothing in the ROE that requires a military UAV pilot to attack an unarmed civilian in circumstances which violate the Laws Of Land Warfare; the question is one of whether the alternative, manned, strike aircraft can do any better.
Presence defines the number of target opportunities in which a UAV team can CHOOSE to attack or not. Where a given road is being used by ISIL technicals, if the fixed wing aircraft is only overhead for 40 minutes between tankings and overall less than two hours in the combat area due to pilot fatigue limits (and the transit time between the AO and base), the likelihood of a drone operator making a mistake is less because he knows he has time to get his F2T2EA right. Again-
MQ-9 Reaper ER = 12 hours forward, 8hrs transit with Four AGM-114 .
A-10C Hawg = 2hrs forward, 4hrs transit, with 2 AGM-65K and 2 GBU-12.
The problem with UAV operations is that they are desultory unless they are used in combination with secondary operations to restore order and deny access to the logistical base from which ISIL and the like operate.
They accomplish nothing on their own and thus viewing them in microcosm can only be said to be valid when there is in fact no other operational plan to do things like secure towns and gradually pen in the threat operators across a narrowing base of operations.
A-UAVs can do a lot to prevent road traffic and to support troops in contact during these 'Transport Plan' + 'Village Defense Program' combined efforts to minimize surprise and maximize threat fear of open maneuver.
But you have to jump in someplace and create that single strongpoint which forces the likes of ISIL to either attempt to retake the node in their administrative and lines of communication network. Or to drive around it.
Because that is how you begin to take away options from them, make them more obvious in their movements and change the viewpoint of civilians who, right now, have no choice but to cooperate.
UAVs win the '/longest/ with mostest' conditional battle where you are on the enemy's schedule for when they will show up. They make sure that a city you have just spent blood taking doesn't get jumped by a flying squad QRF in the interval when manned sorties are down for maintenance and crew rest, roughly every 12-16hrs for about 8hrs.
And to give this up is to give up the ability to stop the likes of ISIL because cannot maintain continuity of coverage and certainty of look down ISR to keep our much smaller ground forces dominant in their own maneuver.
If you want to take UAVs off the PEL prosecution mission, fine. But think before you make what limited effort we are now doing even less effectual by forcing it into the hands of pilots who simply won't be there, 90% of the time when ISIL or the like does their rear area coordination and resupply.
Is ISIL worth defeating or isn't it?