Drone Warfare: Distant Targets and Remote Killings

Ever since the first days of the global “War on Terror” (2001), armed drones have been used to track, hunt, and kill suspected terrorists/insurgents around the world. The unique ability to loiter, to strike deep into distant and unwelcoming places, and ultimately to kill by “remote control” – without directly risking the lives of American military personnel – has proven to be impossible to resist. Between 2001 and 2009, the United States embraced “killer drones,” for surveillance and strike missions. The peak period of American drone warfare (to date) occurred under the leadership of President Barack Obama (2009–2017). Now known to some as “the drone president,” President Obama’s administation ordered hundreds of strikes outside of areas of active declared conflict (Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia). The president approved considerably more strikes in regions declared as active battlefields, such as Afghanistan. Indeed, under President Obama, armed drones were used to strike targets many thousands of times, ensuring that the drone would become embedded in its place as the spearhead of modern American warfare. In so doing, Obama set an example for his successor, President Trump, and to the world: that force could be deployed with so-called pinpoint precision on one’s enemies, wherever they may be located, yet there need not be substantial risk to the perpetrator. To be specific, according to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), there were 5,888 American drone strikes in Afghanistan alone between 2015 and the end of 2019 (TBIJ 2019). It is off the back of this continued American use of the armed drone that a demand for drones from both allied and antagonistic nations has grown.