Military Drones Research Paper

War. War never changes. That is, not until now. For thousands of years, war has been exclusively a terrestrial, mano-a-mano event, but much has changed in recent years. A sort of technological revolution has overcome society today and militaries are taking full advantage of any new inventions they can get their hands on. Perhaps the single most significant new military technology is remotely controlled drones. Military drones have uprooted the traditional ideas of what war was thought to be and have planted the seeds of a new era of warfare. Much like the advent of gunpowder or the iron ship, drones signal a turning point in the way wars are fought. While this method of war does have negative aspects, they are vastly outweighed by the benefits. The use of military drones, while easy to exploit, is beneficial and likely the most useful new technology in use by the U.S. military today. As one of the most controversial methods of war in the United States military arsenal, there is naturally a sizable proportion of people, American and foreign, who oppose it. A common

The most obvious reason is the lack of boots on the ground. American troops are among the best trained in the world, but casualties still happen. With drones, the chances of an American soldier getting injured or killed in combat is literally zero percent. If no troops are in combat, they cannot get hurt. Gathering intelligence in combat zones has also never been easier or safer. In the past, intelligence missions relied on men to sneak into the enemy compound or zone and retrieve the information (Nadim 35). This is the ideal method, but the dangers attached greatly overshadow the benefits. If the risk for American, civilian, and target casualties is quite high, then it would only make sense to use an unmanned vehicle to secretly obtain