Since appearing in the skies over Afghanistan in 2001, drones have captured the public imagination. Deployed by the US military in counter-insurgency and stabilisation campaigns, unmanned air power has been widely hailed as a revolutionary instrument of modern warfare. Its development has given rise to debates about the ethics of "targeted killing" strikes, the challenges for sovereignty and international law, and the role of autonomy in future weapons. However, this has obscured earlier lessons about drones from decades of trial and error, as well as the enduring challenges which lay ahead...
Since appearing in the skies over Afghanistan in 2001, drones have captured the public imagination. Deployed by the US military in counter-insurgency ...