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The Pros And Cons Of Warfare Drones

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Drones which are also referred to as “killer drones” are more accurately described as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and these are remotely-controlled aircrafts which are controlled by pilots (TestTube News, 2015). These drones have increasingly been designed to independently follow a pre-programmed mission. Drones have become today’s weapon of choice in counter-terrorism, and are expected to replace piloted aircrafts in the coming 40 years or so (The Economist, 2011). The increase in the use of drones is due to the confidence that they are more than capable of replacing manned aircraft but not everyone is comfortable with idea of warfare drones. In this essay I will discuss the pros and cons of warfare drones. The first and most obvious …show more content…

The report stated that “such revolutionary weapons would not be consistent with international humanitarian law and would increase the risk of death or injury to civilians during armed conflict” (Cohen, 2015). Warfare drone strikes violate international law, the report issued by the Human Rights Watch along with the report released by the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations which both came to similar conclusions highlighted that international humanitarian law prohibits weapon systems that cannot follow the 2 fundamental rules of distinction and proportionality (Cohen, 2015). These drone strikes also violate the sovereignty of other countries, drone strikes are often carried out without the permission of the targeted countries. The biggest fear of warfare drones is that they are not good enough to reliably discriminate between civilians and military targets, and therefore is incapable of complying with the laws of war (Horowitz & Scharre, 2015). Although US records of the casualties caused by these drones are kept a secret, independent groups were able to calculate that almost 4000 people were killed by drones and that around 400 of them were civilians (TestTube News, 2015). Another problem with the drones is that it made it too easy, it …show more content…

However, the drones violate international rights and in order for the drones to be accepted worldwide, there has to be more transparency in the use of warfare drones. The U.S government needs to ensure compliance with customary international legal standards as well, they need to provide information that provides details on how these drones are effective and minimizes the

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