Skip to main content

Home/ Geopolitics Weekly/ Group items tagged UAV

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Pedro Gonçalves

'Killer robots' pose threat to peace and should be banned, UN warned | Science | The Gu... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...killer-robots-ban-un-warning

Drones Military Automated Weapons

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 30 May 13 - No Cached
  • "Machines lack morality and mortality, and as a result should not have life and death powers over humans,"
  • "States are working towards greater and greater autonomy in weapons, and the potential is there for such technologies to be developed in the next 10 or 20 years,"
  • Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Drone technology has already moved a step closer to a fully autonomous state in the form of the X-47B, a super-charged UAV developed by the US Navy that can fly itself, and which last week completed the first takeoff from an aircraft carrier. The drone is billed as a non-combat craft, yet its design includes two weapons bays capable of carrying more than 4,000lbs.Britain is developing its own next generation of drone, known as Taranis, that can be sent to tackle targets at long range and can defend itself from enemy aircraft. Like X-47B it has two in-built weapons bays, though is currently unarmed.
  • South Korea has set up sentry robots known as SGR-1 along the Demilitarized Zone with North Korea that can detect people entering the zone through heat and motion sensors; though the sentry is currently configured so that it has to be operated by a human, it is reported to have an automatic mode, which, if deployed, would allow it to fire independently on intruders.
  • the Pentagon is spending about $6bn a year on research and development of unmanned systems, though in a directive adopted last November it said that fully autonomous weapons could only be used "to apply non-lethal, non-kinetic force, such as some forms of electronic attack".
  • The possibility of "out of the loop" weapons raises a plethora of moral and legal issues, Heyns says. Most worryingly, it could lead to increasing distance between those carrying out the attack and their targets: "In addition to being physically removed from the kinetic action, humans would also become more detached from decisions to kill – and their execution."
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC News - Is Obama's drone doctrine counter-productive? - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-us-canada-18270490

US Military UAVs

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 30 May 12 - No Cached
  • some say they simply do not have the desired result. Gregory Johnsen of Princeton University is an expert on Yemen and he told me that the rain of drone attacks has strengthened the hand of terrorists there. "Look at Yemen on Christmas Day 2009, the day the so-called underwear bomber attempted to bring down a flight over Detroit. "On that day al-Qaeda numbered about 200 to 300 individuals and they controlled no territory. Now today, two-and-a-half years later, despite all the drone strikes al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has tripled in size, it's now around 1,000 members and it controls significant territory. "The more the US bombs, the more they grow."
  • The president may think very carefully before he approves individual killings, but in the end, as a strategy, drone attacks have too many attractions compared to doing nothing or sending in the troops.
Pedro Gonçalves

Pentagon Prefers Blimps to $35M Spy Planes - Technology News Briefs | Newser - 0 views

www.newser.com/...-blimps-to-35m-spy-planes.html

US Military Robert Gates Predator Global Hawk Drones UAVs Blimps

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 06 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Financially grounded by the recession, the Pentagon and governments around the world are launching blimps to spy on their enemies, the Economist reports. Such balloons cost far less than Predator and Global Hawk drones—which can sell for $35 million each—and stay airborne for more than a week, while drones last about 30 hours. Blimps are also hard to shoot down, even when they are hit.
  • Blimps also suit Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who said he wants "75% solutions" enacted in weeks or months, not "exquisite systems” that take years.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Europe | Russia 'will buy Israeli drones' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7994076.stm

Russia Georgia Israel UAV

shared by Argos Media on 10 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Russia has signed a deal to buy Israeli unmanned spy planes to help the country improve its own drones
  • The news comes after reports that Moscow was unhappy with the performance of similar Russian aircraft during the conflict last year with Georgia. An industry source in Israel said Russian generals had been impressed with the Israeli drones used by Georgia in the conflict.
  • Russia wanted to study the technology of the drones in an effort to improve its own pilotless planes, which came under criticism during the Georgia conflict.
1 - 5 of 5
Showing 20▼ items per page