According to the latest news, over dozens countries have already built their own military drones. Every country will have military drones within a decade. Not to mention that some of the countries already have the technologies will be exporting. For example, Saudi Arabia had ordered drones from China. Eventually drones with missiles attached will be in the hands of everyone. Drones are small which means it's harder to detect them than a standard manned aircraft. Many drones can be launched anywhere without a runway, it means it's even harder to detect them and even if detected, it's going to be a very short notice. Do you think it will be a terrifying scenario? If these weapons fall into the wrong hands, lets say some terrorists/extremists/assassins, they can be extremely dangerous. Someone can launch it from within a city to strike a building or a person inside the city. The drones can fly between buildings since they are so small. Military jets patrols will have little time to react if any at all.
I think the situation once all countries have drones will be a bit similar to the Cold War, since everyone will have the ability to wipe everyone else out, everyone will be too fearful to take the first step and it should lead to some very tense situations. Of course that it must be even more dangerous due to having more "players" in the game so it will be harder to pin accountability for any single attack.
I was thinking something similiar. I can see them being terrifying weapons in the hands of terror groups, but we already have such "efficent tools" in killing each other that I don't know if it'd change war all that much.
I think this would be a bit scary. I am not sure if I like the idea of everything going the technical route. I am not sure how much it will change things, if at all, but it is still terrifying.
I actually believe conflicts might become more likely when drones are widely used. The conflicts might start with drones attack drones, since there will be no human casualty at first. With no human casualty involved, people won't think twice before commanding their drones to hit non-human targets. Although this is just one of the possible scenarios, I can see this from the example of the disputes between China and Japan. Japan warned to shoot down Chinese drones over the dispute islands, and China responded with "it will be an act of war".
That's true, with everything becoming more and more technical it's a completely different warfare. On the one hand, the weapons won't be usable by just anyone that gets their hands on them, which should hamper terrorist groups and weapons trafficking. On the other hand, there is now the added threat of hackers taking full control over an attack drone for example, being able to attack large targets without putting himself physically at risk.
While I agree that drones can fall into the hands of the wrong people. It will certainly minimize the risk for terrorists. If they have drones, they will no longer need suicide bombing. On the other hand, I don't see "hacking" being a risk for drones. The military isn't stupid enough to have their drone remote controller connected to the internet like your home computers. Only another military with sophistic electronic warfare equipments can hope for jamming and then somehow use the same control frequency and codes to take control of an enemy drone. Your regular civilian "hackers" with just a computer and some internet access is completely out of the loop when comes to hack a drone lol.
I do think it will be a terrifying scenario, vashstampede, yes. (Probably is already if I think about it too much.) I don't really buy into the "they won't destroy NYC because they know we can destroy one of their cities immediately, too" thought pattern because... well frankly, if someone is ruthless enough to *DO* this, they won't really care if one of their own cities ends up as collateral damage, I think. So... well, I'm just not thinking it will be as simple as "oh, I can't take out one of their major cities because they'll do the same." This isn't like "our grandpa's wars" where thoughts of harming women, children, religious sites, etc. mattered. I think "Yes, I scored!" (like the Bin Laden mindset) would override any compassion or common sense.
I think it's an even colder war the one fought we drones, one thing is to kill another human being while looking at him, other thing is to kill people thousands of miles away just by pressing a button, this might lead to confusion between fiction and reality...
Yeah, many of the drones in Iraq and Afghanistan were operated remotely from within the US half a world away. You made a good point. All these drone operators are controlling these killing machines with some controllers and buttons. It is like a video game to them. It not only will not put the operators in danger (at least not immediate danger) of the war, but it will also not make them hesitate to push a button unlike if they are holding a gun pointing at someone on the battlefield. It is a lot easier to push a button while you are not even in the area but simply looking at a screen... @ Kate, Some terrorists are stateless, and they do not even represent their country of birth/or citizenship, some of them have lost their citizenship as their governments are against their methods. ex: Saudi Arabia took away the citizenship of Bin Laden. While I am sure Bin still love his country of Saudi, some other terrorists might not think the same. Once they are abandoned by their own country, they could careless about what's going to happen to them.
Very true... I was thinking more along the lines of world leaders having these capabilities but maybe there would be a way for terrorist groups to have drones, too... what do you think? Possible? I mentioned bin Laden because of the "gotta do damage, don't care about possible consequences" way of thinking. Not sure if even the hardest leaders would ever think like that, though.
Exactly, I was never in a war, but I imagine that one thing is to fight for our lives and the other thing is to fight half a world away, not seeing our opponents, not seeing the gravity of the situation, seems exactly like a video game...
Most countries that are significant forces anyway already have them, and nothing drastic has happened. I would actually prefer they do if we're all going to fight like that. It isn't an immediate threat to our security. If people wanted to attack us they could send troops or nuke us, or air bomb us, really lots of things. They don't though, and drones would likely be the same way. It just means less humans dying because robots can fight it out. What I'm worried about is once drones are more affordable and readily available to the public for purchase.
Military technology is always available for the right price, that is why our world always sees non-stop wars and the weaponry industry is so developed, it's a sad reality.
The technology is pretty expensive and difficult to make, so I don't think every country will have it that soon. But it would be a scary world where every world leader could launch a drone stroke in a second on anyone they want to.
A while ago I read in the news that Amazon plans to use drones for faster deliver of goods to people's front yard lol. Then not so long ago I read in the news again that Amazon is seeking approval of launch drones in the States. Can anyone confirm its accuracy? If it is true, I can see problem with it already... power lines get accidentally cut, or a drone land on the house or a car etc. or even maybe someone's head.
That is why Amazon is still waiting, that has to be regulated or legislated, but I see no harm really, I think drones are the future as long as a good regulation exists.
Large drones that can carry missles are expensive to maintain, and I doubt any terrorist has the infrastructure to support a large fleet of drones. The technology to create drones are already in terrorist hands, they are basically scaled up RC planes that are made out of metal.
