Pros And Cons Of Drone Warfare

The Pro’s and Cons of Drone Warfare

Drones otherwise known as unmanned aerial vehicles seem have come into the war-zone in an attempt to completely revolutionise the way in which they are fought. Drones have played a vital role in the war on terror as they have been used by the US to identify terrorist camps, as well as individuals who might be disguising themselves by trying to blend into a civilian population. There are different types of drones as not all of them share the same purpose, there are drones that are built for surveillance as well as other drones that are built to attack. These drones are unmanned but they are controlled from a specific central area. Drone warfare has been the subject of debate since they were first introduced,

Drones are unmanned so the risk of losing soldiers is not there, drones save lives with regards to military personnel as they are controlled without a soldier physically being inside of them. Seeing as they are unmanned they can be operated for countless hours without the risk of human fatigue so they can constantly be doing their “job” when put into the war-zone. Another advantage of drones is that they are cheaper than having a soldier on the ground in the war-zone. In 2012, CNN reported that the cost of one soldier in Afghanistan per year came to between $850,000 to $1.4 million. The cost of flying a drone in the war-zone for an hour according to a report done by the National Priorities Project’s Analysis of the Fiscal Year 2012 Pentagon Spending Request (NPP, 2013) is around $3000 to $4000 per hour. The cost difference is immense when one looks at these figures. Drones are financially the best options when it comes to war if these figures are taken into account. Drones are more effective when it comes to accuracy as well as attacking multiple targets at once. The soldiers who pilot these drones also have an advantage as they do not succumb to the post traumatic stress effects that soldiers on the ground and front lines suffer from. They are not in the middle of the war controlling these drones so they are safe and have better chances of resuming life as normal civilians compared to soldiers at the forefront of

According to Spencer Ackerman, the Council of foreign relations has counted 3,674 deaths as result of 500 drone strikes outside of Iraq and Afghanistan ( The Guardian, 2014). Most of these deaths were civilian casualties and can be viewed as “collateral” damage but it begs the question if drones are really as effective as they are proclaimed to be by their protagonists. Drones will not always hit their target and given a couple chances they will miss at times. The effect of them missing can result in massive civilian casualties. Drone warfare has come under protest due to statistics similar to those mentioned