Technology in war: A brief history of drones

In the beginning, battles were won by brute strength. Early man fought battles over land, resources, food and women by killing with the only weapons they had: their hands. The stronger man always came out on top by defeating his enemies in hand-to-hand brutality.

Like mankind itself, things had to evolve. The motivation hasn't changed much, but the way combat plays out has. It doesn't matter who is the biggest or strongest anymore; what does matter is how much money and technology you have at your disposal.

Centuries ago, men headed into battle with swords and spears, marching for miles to fight just inches way from one another. As technology advanced, war has become less about actually going out and fighting and more about developing technology on home soil. Combatants now don't need to be within arm's reach, let alone the same country, to carry out attacks.

Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) or “drones” are leading the pack when it comes to changing warfare. These pilotless aircrafts can be controlled by navigators with remote controls on the ground or controlled completely on their own by computer systems and GPS technology.

Stripped to the necessities, equipment for a human pilot is taken out for better maneuverability and smaller size. Often the controllers are hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

Drones really started to develop at the beginning of the First World War. These drones, called “flying bombs” or “aerial torpedoes,” would use electronic signals and gyroscopes to guide themselves towards their targets. A small plane filled with explosives was developed to collide into nearby enemy aircrafts and ground units, exploding on impact. Though strides were made, these drones still had many bugs and were not deemed ready for use in combat.

This idea carried into WWII, with drone planes starting to become lightweight and affordable, much like the RC planes you can buy at any hobby shop. The army used these radio-controlled planes to train antiaircraft shooters and pilots and to experiment with using these explosive-filled drones to crash into enemy battleships.

During the Cold War Era, drones had to adapt to what was happening in the world. Drones were less frequently used for blowing things up and made the shift toward spying and gathering information. Hundreds of thousands of reconnaissance missions were carried out by different countries on each other across the world, with the UAVs performing surveillance and capturing photographs over hostile territories. The United States Army was concerned about causalities after several pilots performing recon missions were shot down, and so they started developing the drones to combat this problem. It was considered a success, since they could have all the same capabilities of going deep behind enemy lines, without the risk of endangering the pilot.

In the '80s, Iran was the first to deploy a combat drone armed with six RPG rounds during the Iran-Iraq War, this being the first time a combat drone was utilized for war. This concept exploded, with all major military powers around the world developing combat-ready drones.

After the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001, The United States acquired 60 Predator drones to use for their Afghanistan/Iraq campaign — the first time America used drones for combat.

These Predators are still widely used today and are equipped with laser-guided Hellfire missiles, GPS and 360-degree surveillance camera that can spot facial features from five miles away. These drones can fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet and stay in the air for 40 hours at a time.

In 2000 the Pentagon had less than 50 drones. Ten years later, they had 7,500. In 2003, the U.S. Air Force was flying around six round-the-clock drone patrols around the world every day. By 2010, that number had reached 40.

The Predator is still the primary drone used for these combat and surveillance mission to this day, more recently carrying out missions in Pakistan. The CIA has conducted a total of 357 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, claiming to have taken out an estimated 2,200 militants, including many high-ranking Al-Qaeda officers.

In a February 2012 poll of 1,000 US adults, 83 per cent said they supported the use of drone strikes in foreign battles; however, drone strikes still garnered much controversy among the general public because drones operators occasionally make mistakes and kill the wrong people. In 2008, a Predator drone fired a missile into a wedding party in Afghanistan, killing 30 civilians, including children. Statistics widely vary, but some say as high as 30 per cent of people killed in drone attacks are civilians.

Drones, however high-tech, still have many disadvantages compared to a real pilot. With the camera only being able to capture a small, targeted area, the operator's field of vision is limited, resulting in mistakes. A real pilot would be able to see the bigger picture and assess if a strike should be administered. Being present in the action with your finger on the trigger gives more sense of accountability that is not available when sitting in the comfort of an armchair outside Las Vegas, firing missiles in a drone half a world away.

Medea Benjamin, author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control explained why drones are becoming more used than traditional pilots: “There's no pilot at risk of being killed or maimed in a crash. No pilot to be taken captive by enemy forces. No pilot to cause a diplomatic crisis if shot down in a ‘friendly country' while bombing or spying without official permission. If a drone crashes or is shot down, the pilot back home can simply get up and take a coffee break.”

Today, there are more than 5,000 drones operational with different roles in the U.S. military. The Air Force has trained more drone operators in the past two years than pilots, favouring drones because they can train controllers in nine months, compared to the two years it takes to train a regular pilot. The United States has Drone Control bases located in 60 locations, including Germany, Ethiopia and Florida.

Although drones have been around for a long time, we are still in the very early stages in terms of seeing what these things can do. There is still much debate in congress about the ethics of drone killings and just how much power to give to these robots.

What I do know is that I'll be busting out my old Air Hogs and RC helicopter to get some practice before the great drone war happens — you might want to follow.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.