In late August, announced information about killing another important Al-Qaeda leader. Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, Libyan considered the number 2 in the current hierarchy of the organization. His death in the mountains in the north-eastern Pakistan on Aug. 22 was another attack, which however were not real soldiers participate- but the combat drones.
Until recently, they were associated rather with reconnaissance and espionage actions, with their help have been identifying the area around the house where he was to stay Osama Bin Laden, allegedly killed by Navy SEALS in early May.
Using unmanned aircraft for intelligence purposes could be read for years. In particular, General Atomics MQ-1 Predator – used in years 1994-2011 . Predators were used mainly to reconnaissance actions, but after the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan came the idea to use drone for combat tasks. Until their withdrawal in March 2011 these drones took part in campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, but also occurred during the Balkan conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo .
His successor became the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. Reaper is the first airplane hunter-killer type. Is armed with homing bombs using laser or GPS, as well as 14 missiles AGM-114 Hellfire.
Peaceful transition to offensive operations
Despite the fact that from year to year their activity increases significantly, to 2011 it was hard to find official reports of using combat drones. According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which monitors drones activities it was 295 attacks, which killed about two and a half thousand people. Interestingly, these devices have been used 243 times during Barack Obama’s term of office . They operate mainly in the Middle East, and their activity extends from Kenya and Somalia to the Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan. The area of greatest concentration of drones attacks is Pakistan, remains formally in military alliance with the U.S.
The ratio of Pakistan authorities to drones had been changed over the last decade. Shamshad Ahmad, former foreign minister and ambassador of Pakistan to the UN told IPS service, that in 2004-2007 President Pervez Musharraf agreed to drone attacks, in an effort to express support for the administration of George W. Bush in the fight against Al-Qaeda. American side had not only autonomy in the selection of targets, but also support Pakistan government propaganda, and after each drones attack spread the information that the explosions were caused by homemade bombs.
The entire action could not be kept in secret, because as it turned out, drones attacks were imprecise and often instead of the leaders of Al-Qaeda attacked civilians.
One of the most famous incidents took place in late October 2006 when it killed 82 people.
In 2004-2007 as a result of the world's drone attacks killed 168 people, including 109 civilians, of whom 82 were minors. Since 2008, activities have become much more intense. Most of attacks in Pakistan focused on the Taliban, but also when a high percentage of the victims were civilians (1091 killed a total of 2134 in 2008-2011). According to Gareth Porter of IPSnews.net until the events of early 2011 altered the position of the Pakistani authorities.
Pakistan is a country where unmanned aircraft attacks occurs mostly and number of operations with drones constantly growing. For example, since operation “Dawn Odyssey" in March 2011 till the end of June in Libya was up to 42 attacks.
Also in Somalia, where American army have not stationed since 1993, in June 23, came to attack at two leaders of the Mujahideen Youth Movement. In the words of an anonymous informant, who spoke to the Washington Post, the killed Somalis "planned to carry out attacks in Europe."
Changing technology
The beginnings of research on unmanned combat machines controlled by radio waves back started after the First World War. In early 30s showed the British "DH.82B Queen Bee" and the American Curtiss' N2C-2 ". Unmanned planes were using during World War II in small scale.
In the postwar period the technology was developed on both sides of the Iron Curtain, Anglo-Saxons developed drones from BTT (Basic Training Target) family, such as the "MQM-36 Shelduck," and "MQM-57 Falconer," which were used till 80 s. At the same time Soviet side also sustained research on unmanned aircraft, the first model was built in the 50s and was the Lavochkin "La-17", the test flights took place in 1953.
Throughout interwar period studies at drones had a two-way directions – the first was standard airplanes size machines designs , and other small devices, which were harder to shoot, and better for spy actions. The most famous modern "Predators" and "Reapers" are drones with relatively large size required for weapons transfer cameras.
Scientists are working on drones that imitate birds or insects and will be able to act effectively on battlefield. Pentagon has more than 7 thousands pieces of machinery built in the previous decade, is also planning to devote considerable financial resources needed to develop a technology which by 2030 would enable the creation a "spy fly", intelligent robot, very small size. Although according to official reports, this project is still at an early stage, it does all sorts of "leaks" suggest that in many cases are already tested prototypes, such as for example disclosed in February, drone-hummingbird project created by Californian company AeroVironment.
Will the new technology and improved drones will be able to carry out an attack anywhere in the world will make the number of civilian casualties decrease? According to former CIA officer, Philip Giraldi is impossible, because as he said in an interview with Russian television RT "weapon is dependent on espionage which identify terrorist and this is not the best, so I suspect that modern technology will not grand difference ".
The effects of increasing the presence of drones in warfare
All indicate that robots will be the future of the military, and as noted James Corbett , an independent analyst and columnist, "the question arises whether the U.S. drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen are not actually promise a new era in warfare, an era in which military intervention will take place simply because it can be done without any risk for the attacker ".
In the face of Obama's promised to withdraw 33,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan until September 2012, using remotely controlled devices to carry out further acts of war seems to be a logical direction. Since the war in Vietnam, which ended with, inter alia, as a result of public pressure, the number of casualties on the side of American soldiers is an important factor in support for the war operations. Reduction of this factor through because of using combat drones may lead to a significant decrease in the number of casualties on the American side, thereby significantly reducing the pacifist sentiment.
Another important result is that people will make decisions regarding life and death without endangering their own lives. Until now, strongly acted psychological factor, where the soldier through a direct presence on the battlefield was in direct contact with the enemy. This drone pilot direct contact disappears, while the same actions are beginning to resemble a computer game where the character is a virtual enemy.
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