It’s quite a time for remotely piloted aircraft or ‘drones’ at the moment. Their illegal use for targeted killings has been condemned by Amnesty and Human Rights Watch with former senior Law Lord Bingham calling them so ‘cruel as to be beyond the pale of human tolerance. Even the MoD acknowledges that there are serious legal and moral issues arising from the growing use of armed drones and a recent Joint Doctrine Note has recognised that the role of humans in deciding if and when missiles are launched is being eroded[1]. By lowering the threshold when attacks might be considered, drones make war more likely and we still don’t know how many civilians are being killed in this way. Questions to David Cameron on whether the 124 people killed by British drone attacks were all ‘insurgents’, as he boasted last December, remain unanswered. The authorities would have us believe that drones only kill combatants but the New America Foundation suggests that 1/3 of casualties in US drone attacks in Pakistan are civilians.[2] The Pakistan Body Count's assessment is even higher - 50 civilians for every combatant killed, with a total of 1245-2420 killed and 263-959 injured by drones since 2004.[3] The military either don’t know or don’t want to know, but a recent report from the Oxford Research Group[4] reminds them that under international law they are required to record and announce the civilian casualties in each attack. So, when will the MoD issue their figures?

The UK has been using US armed Reaper drones in Afghanistan since 2007 and in May the MoD announced it will be doubling the number to 10 (at a cost of £135 million). At the moment these drones are flown by RAF pilots from the US but a new Reaper Squadron is being established to fly them form RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.[5] We are also developing our own. The “Watchkeeper”, already overdue for deployment in Afghanistan – is being developed from an original Israeli design ("field-tested on Palestinians" in Gaza).  Qinetiq is testing them from Aberporth airfield on the Ceredigion coast and the Civil Aviation Authority has just designated a large area over rural South West Wales for test flights.[6] Their engines are being manufactured by UAV Engines Ltd in Litchfield.

In the US it looks like most of their future military planes will be robotic. The Pentagon has plans to build a new fleet of 80-100 long range nuclear capable bombers - that could operate with or without a pilot on board. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing are expected to compete for extremely lucrative contracts, each of them already has existing robot planes that look very much like stealth bombers. Nuclear bombs to be flown by robot planes – that could even be developed in the future to make their own decisions – scary or what?

The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space[7] decided at their annual meeting that ‘Keep Space for Peace Week’ this year (1-8 October) should focus on drones. The UK Drones Campaign Network is also supporting this[8] and October 7^th marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. A really good time then to organise meetings, hold vigils, protests, whatever, in your area to raise awareness of the issues surrounding drones and the militarization of space. On 15^th October delegates to CND annual conference in Bradford will be visiting Menwith Hill – the US spy base which provides much of the information for drone strikes – why not join us there?