The Times is today reporting that the UK Defence Select Committee is to hold an inquiry into the use of armed drones: Members of the Commons Defence Select Committee are to investigate the deployment of armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in… Read More ›
New information about the number of US drone strikes in Afghanistan has been revealed by DangerRoom, the national security blog at Wired.com. According to official US figures supplied to the website there have been a total of 1,160 US drone… Read More ›
This week we have been updated on some basic figures in relation to British drones in Afghanistan. In the House of Lords, Defence Minister Lord Hever detailed the number of UAVs in service in Afghanistan with British forces. As we… Read More ›
The concern that drones make armed attacks and military intervention more likely is often rejected by the military and the drone industry, who argue that the drone pilots are able to stand above the ‘fog and friction’ of the battlefield and to… Read More ›
We’re reposting this short report, together with the links to further information, that we have just received today: Centcom.mil released on 22 March 2012 a declassified 2,100-page report on slaughter of 23 Afghan non-combatants – men, women, children – in February… Read More ›
We are publishing from today a list of known UK drone strikes in Afghanistan. The list will be regularly updated when information becomes available. The UK Drone Strike List is available here In summary: Some details of 80 (40%) of UK drone strikes… Read More ›
NATO commanders have asked the US to send more Predator drones to Libya to enable them to find more targets. After four months of airstrikes, NATO forces are having trouble locating new military targets. As one senior officer put it… Read More ›
The tragic news that Afghan civilians have been killed in a British drone strike comes, unfortunately, as little surprise. I have been investigating the use of armed drones for the past three years and despite the mantra-like use of phrases such… Read More ›
Over the past few weeks I have been trying to extract details about British drone strikes in Afghanistan from the RAF’s weekly operations reports. It goes without saying that a complete or reliable analysis is not possible from this material… Read More ›
Obama: Sending Drones to Bomb Libya It’s been a busy week! On Monday the Guardian highlighted the MoD’s new document on the need for serious discussion on the ethics and legality of using drones (see post below), a story which… Read More ›
Further evidence of the rise of research into unmanned military systems in British universities comes with the news that engineers from Newcastle University are part of a team working on a giant solar powered surveillance drone for the US military…. Read More ›
The UK MoD has issued a pre ‘invitation to tender’ notice to the military industry for a new ‘nano’ drone to be used in Afghanistan. The document, revealed by Flight Global and the Guardian calls for a drone of no more… Read More ›
