Drone Wars: How UAV Tech Is

Transforming the Future of War

By Dann Albright

In the history of warfare, there have been a few major revolutions: the advent of the firearm, the
introduction of nuclear power and weaponry, and the launch of military satellites to name a few. A
new revolution is taking place right now on the battlefields of the world: wars are fought
increasingly by drones. Of course, people are still in the line of fire, and they always will be (the
Pentagon stated last year that there were 1.4 million active US troops overseas)—but their role
and numbers could be vastly different than they are now. There’s no question that drones are
changing the face of warfare: militaries have always been in technology races, but never before
has the winner of the race gained the ability to wage war without putting troops on the front line.

All indicators point to this increasing in scope. A recent academic paper by Mariarosaria Taddeo
reported that the US government deployed 150 “robotic weapons” in 2004, and an astonishing
12,000 in 2008. That’s an increase by a factor of 80 in four years (though it’s important to
remember that the majority of these drones are unarmed).

Drone Use Increasing

Drones aren’t only used for military purposes; US Customs and Border Protection uses Reaper
drones to patrol the border between the US and its neighbors. The Department of Homeland
Security is also reportedly using them. Police and fire departments around the country are
purchasing drones to help in patrolling. Retailers are testing drones for delivering purchases. You
can even get a drone that will follow you around and film you. The FAA estimates that by 2020,
there could be up to 30,000 drones operating in domestic airspace. A site dedicated to US national
security and defense has estimated that every country in the world will have military drone
technology in the next 10 years. Of course, the rise of drones isn’t an isolated event; the cyber
battlefront is quickly becoming one of the most active in international conflicts. “Information
warfare,” a term that generally includes both drones and cyber warfare, has also given rise to the
unnerving creation of ground-based military robots that don’t require any human control. While
most drones are remotely operated by soldiers, South Korea’s SGR-A1 (made by Samsung’s
defense subsidiary) and Russia’s Taifun-M are two examples of robots with lethal capacity that
have self-operating capabilities.

It’s obvious that drones are quickly changing the face of the world, primarily in regard to warfare,
but also in the civilian sector. What could this change mean for the future? At the moment, there’s
a lot of speculation and a lot of disagreement. World leaders have always had to justify wars to
their people, saying that there’s a cause worth shedding the blood of their children for—but what
happens when no more blood is being shed? Will countries be more willing to go to war? Tim Hsia
and Jared Sperli seem to think so. In a blog post at the New York Times, they had this to say:

Ultimately, it seems possible that these major changes will make it easier to wage
war because the risks to American servicemen have been minimized. Wars will be
fought not only by soldiers with boots on the ground but also by soldiers sitting in
front of computer and video monitors. Tomorrow’s future warriors could very much
resemble today’s civilian Xbox video gamers.

And if you’ve been following the history of drone strikes made by the US, you know that it’s made a
number of strikes on countries that it hasn’t gone to war with, generally as counterterrorism
measures. Some worry that this gives more military power to the executive branch of the
government, skewing the balance of power within the government. Peter Singer, in an interview
with NPR, pointed out that
 Obama skirted congressional authorization for military action in Libya, arguing that
air support for the European effort did not risk U.S. forces. Yet, he says, the U.S.
carried out 146 airstrikes in Libya — including a final strike that may have
contributed to the capture of Col. Moammar Gadhafi.

146 airstrikes sounds a lot like going to war, but they were undertaken without congressional
authorization. That makes many people uncomfortable.

A recent report from the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. criticised the US government’s use of
drone technology, saying that it challenges the sovereignty of other nations, and could create a
“domino effect,” encouraging other countries to perform questionably legal drone strikes. (To read
some of the highlights of the 80-page report, check out this article.) Obviously, the future of warfare
is currently up in the air (pun intended). It’s against this geopolitical background that discussion of
drones, including this one, take place. There’s only one thing we know for sure: that the technology
being researched for use in advanced military drones—and in counter-measures for those drones
—is mind-blowingly cool.

Military Drone Technology

At the moment, drones aren’t all that technologically advanced. The original Predator drone flew at
84 mph, not much faster than the train that I’m writing this article on. The US military freely admits
that it’s not too hard to shoot down a drone. But that will change soon. A new surveillance drone
that is likely ready to put into action, Northrop Grumman’s RQ-180, incorporates stealth technology
to avoid radar detection. According to Aviation Week, it has a 130-foot wingspan and may be able
to stay in the air for a very long time; possibly as long as 24 hours. The SR-72, a drone in
development by Lockheed Martin, is projected to be able to travel at six times the speed of sound,
and to serve as both a surveillance and strike platform. It might be easy to shoot down a Predator
or a Reaper, but it’s going to be awfully hard to hit something moving at Mach 6. The Pentagon is
funding another project from Northrop, the X-47, a triangular combat drone with folding wings that
could take off from and land on aircraft carriers, further increasing the global reach of the US drone
program. According to the Department of Defense’s drone development timeline, the DoD is
hoping for autonomous global missions by 2022.

Of course, effective autonomy isn’t something we have yet, so that’s also high on the list for drone
developers. The same timeline states that “effective unmanned teaming” should be achieved by
2018, allowing two completely autonomous drones to share information. Imagine: one drone could
run surveillance from the edge of the atmosphere, relay targetting instructions to another, and the
second would perform a strike, all without any human intervention. The ability of a surveillance
drone to pick out items of interest is also of great interest to the military. Having soldiers and
intelligence officers review the videos and photos taken from drones takes a lot of time. It would be
a whole lot more efficient if the drones could just red-flag items that might be of interest to the
military. (This is the kind of thing that DARPA is working on, and you can be sure that they’re
bringing their highly advanced computing technologies to bear on the problem.) If you’ve ever
seen a military drone, you know that they’re quite big. (If you haven’t seen one, go to the
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC and check out the Predator drone there—
it’s a fascinating and unnerving experience.) Many advances have been made toward creating
much smaller drones. This is where current technology starts to blend with science fiction.

Researchers are building drones the size of insects that can be used for reconaissance or strikes,
and although it’s difficult to estimate when this kind of technology will be deployed on the
battlefield, it’s a safe bet that they’re currently being tested. Once they’re ready for deployment,
there will be no denying that we’ve reached a new military age.
Anti-Drone Technology

Drone tech isn’t the only thing that’s advancing rapidly; civilian and military organizations are both
pushing hard to develop countermeasures for drones. Boeing, for example, recently tested an anti-
drone laser “cannon” that can shoot down drones, rockets, and 60mm mortar shells, among over
100 other targets. For testing, a 10kW laser was used, but Boeing plans on upping the power to 50
or 60kW when it’s deployed by the military. Fun fact: the operator of this laser uses an Xbox
controller to operate it. The US Navy has also tested a similar weapon, which shot down a drone in
a live test last year. These lasers will be mounted on ships and trucks, making them highly mobile
and capable of defending a wide swath of territory.

But what about other sorts of anti-drone technology? The fact that UAVs are platforms that require
GPS, radio, and other signalling devices makes them susceptible to other forms of attack. Iran
claims that it hacked a US drone and landed it a few years ago, while the US claims that it
malfunctioned and crashed. Either way, it’s clear that hacking could be a problem for drone
operations. An Oregon company, Domestic Drone Countermeasures, LLC, has been developing
an electronic drone detecting system for some time now, despite a failed Kickstarter campaign.
While the system currently only detects low-flying drones like those used by private citizens and
police forces, they hope that it will eventually be able to disrupt the camera and other sensors on
these drones.

The Future of Warfare

As you can see, the world of drone warfare is a complicated place. The world is still trying to figure
out just how to think about drones as weapons of war. The UN is currently debating the issue, and
will release a statement in November. The technology is undeniably impressive, and we can only
hope that the research trickles down into more civilian and mundane spheres. But this technology
is only one part of the system that will determine how nations wage war in the future.
Hsia and Sperli sum it up perfectly:

The future will require a nimble military that will be able to wage full spectrum
warfare from counterinsurgency in remote outposts in Afghanistan’s tribal regions to
a cyberwarfare campaign possibly initiated in the basement of a state or nonstate
actor. Like other major technological changes facing society today, the problem will
not be whether or not technology can accomplish a certain feat but whether our
nation’s leaders fully understand the moral, social and political consequences of
utilizing such technologies.

How do you feel about drones as weapons of war? Should they be used? Are the ethical
implications too great? Or would you rather that they’re destroyed, instead of our soldiers killed, no
matter the political and ideological cost? This is a controversial area; share your thoughts below!

Image credits: Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson, Senior Airman Larry E. Reid, (unknown), Capt. Jane E. Campbell, Lt. Col.
Leslie Pratt via Wikimedia Commons.

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