Military Drones
Drone warfare continues to expand and evolve and will lead to blurring of formal boundaries and change the character of war
Drone Attacks: Are We Prepared Enough? While the discussion around the use of armed drones is not new, not only do these concerns remain unresolved but, with drone warfare continuing to expand and evolve, new layers are being added to the controversies posed by the use of armed drones
Photograph: UPS
By Lt General J.K. Sharma (Retd) On Sunday, June 27, 2021, two low intensity bombs were dropped via drone(s) on the Indian Air Force Base in Jammu, which is next to the Jammu Airfield. The IAF twitter handle stated, “One caused a minor damage to the roof of a building while the other exploded in an open area. There was no damage to any equipment and the investigation is in progress.” With this first of its kind attack, which created a buzz across all the news channels with in minutes of the incident, the security apparatus of the country was confronted with reality of use of
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ISSUE 7 • 2021
this technology in warfare, which so far was only in the realms of discussions and demonstrations. Technologically sophisticated armed and unarmed drones have been in use for nearly two decades, especially by the US and its armed forces, and have been extensively used in IranIraq & Afghanistan. Drone attacks came much to the fore in 2016 with Russia destroying most of Ukraine’s ammunition and artillery even before the shots were fired. In September 2019, two key oil installations in Saudi Arabia were damaged
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