Killer drones. A weapon that creates a new reality

Drones (English "drone" - drone) are unmanned (remote-controlled or self-driving) vehicles, usually floating or flying (most often the latter). Instead of the word "drone" in Russian, the word "drone" is often used.

The article will discuss flying (in the atmosphere) drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (abbreviated as UAVs or UAVs), whose task is to directly kill people.



So, UAV killers are unmanned aircraft and helicopters that carry deadly weapons on board, or are themselves used as destructive projectiles. They can be launched from the surface of the earth (often using special launching devices), from other aircraft or ships.

On the battlefield of the 21st century

One of the most important components of military operations in the 21st century was the use of reconnaissance, strike and reconnaissance-strike UAVs, as well as compact and relatively inexpensive kamikaze drones. These types of military equipment today, almost all countries that produce modern weapons are developing and producing.

At present, these technical means are developing rapidly, mainly due to the high level and rapid development of electronics. It is the speed of calculations, the high speed of information transfer, the perfection of the means of detection and guidance that ensures high accuracy when the target is hit, which makes it possible to reduce the mass of the warhead. Together with the miniaturization of the electronic devices themselves, this makes it possible to create rather small and cheap aircraft.

The widespread use of polymer materials in the construction of drones, as well as the special shape of the body, significantly reduces radar signature, making it difficult to detect and destroy them. Small UAVs are propelled by one, two or more propellers, which are powered by an internal combustion engine or electric motors powered by batteries.

Some kamikaze drones (or loitering ammunition) can receive target designation from reconnaissance or multipurpose UAVs; from their "brothers", "hanging" in the neighborhood or from space satellites. Some, however, do not need additional target designation, being self-sufficient in this sense.

In February 2020, during Operation Spring Shield, Turkish UAVs dealt a powerful blow to the Syrian army and pro-government forces in Idlib province, destroying dozens of vehicles and killing hundreds of fighters.

The war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020 also clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of the massive use of these weapons. The Azerbaijani side used hundreds of drones of Iranian, Israeli and Turkish production for reconnaissance, target designation and destruction of structures, military equipment and manpower of the enemy.

Armenian military in the sight of an Azerbaijani UAV

Handicraft kamikaze drones have been used repeatedly by ISIS to attack the Russian military base of Khmeimim in Syria. The small size and use of radio-transparent materials greatly complicate their detection and destruction. The blow of this insidious weapon can only be repelled by modern air defense systems, such as the Pantsir air defense missile system, which in general successfully copes with this task (the damage from these attacks is not officially reported, but it is clear that if it was, it was rather limited).

The effectiveness of attack UAVs (including loitering ammunition) is significantly increased when using the "swarm" technology being developed today, when many drones form a "military unit", effectively controlled by "artificial intelligence" and requiring minimal or no human operator control.

UAVs of all classes are being produced or are under development in Russia today.

In the coming decades, the importance of UAVs on the battlefield will undoubtedly increase more and more. But at the same time, of course, measures to combat them will also be intensively developed, which, in turn, will lead to the improvement of drones and so on according to the classic scheme of the "fight between the sword and the shield."

Drones will gradually replace manned aircraft. One of the trends in the development of UAVs (including loitering ammunition) is their ever greater miniaturization.

Killer drones

In addition to being used against enemy troops and its infrastructure, drones are used as assassins of specific people. This tool is used both by the state power structures of some countries and by illegal armed groups. It can be assumed that, subject to the preservation of anonymity (and hence impunity), this method of eliminating the unwanted can also be used by other non-governmental organizations or individuals.

The elimination in 1996 of the head of the Chechen separatists D. Dudayev can be considered a prototype of the use of such weapons. According to the official version, he was found by the radiation of his satellite phone and killed by a guided missile fired from a "conventional" attack aircraft (which could be replaced by an attack UAV today or in the future).
The United States was the first to actively use attack drones with missiles to hunt specific people. This happened in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan after the events of September 11, 2001. The same tool was used by Israel, whose UAVs hunt for Palestinians, who were tacitly sentenced to death by the Israeli authorities and special services.

In about 20 years, killer drones have killed several thousand people in the region. Due to the imperfection of this technology, many of these people were killed by mistake and recognized as "collateral damage."

In 2018, there was an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Venezuelan President N. Maduro. Three civilian quadcopters with homemade bombs were to attack him while speaking at a public event. Thanks to the actions of the guards, the drones did not fly, exploding far from the target and injuring several people.


In early 2020, an authoritative Iranian military leader, the commander of the Al-Quds Special Operations Forces, Lieutenant General K. Suleimani, who arrived in Iraq on a visit, was killed at the Baghdad airport. American drones fired several rockets at the convoy of cars, one of which was their target. Several people, including the deputy head of the Iraqi Shiite militia, were the "accompanying" victims of this strike. This sabotage drew condemnation from politicians and ordinary people around the world, including the United States itself.

Thanks to the rapid development of computer technology, the degree of autonomy of combat robotic weapons systems, including UAVs, is growing every year.

Already today, a small flying drone, located at a great distance (that is, invisible visually), is able to automatically find a person according to certain signs and accompany him, without losing even after the “object” enters a building or lands in a vehicle.

Thus, in the near future, it is possible to create killer robots (terminators) and kamikaze robots programmed to kill a specific person. More terrible than this can only be the fact that an extrajudicial decision on the murder of this or that person will be made not by people, but by “artificial intelligence”. In this case, the "executor" and "customer" of the murder, if desired, may remain unknown.

A second before the elimination of one of the leaders of the Yemeni Islamist party Al-Islah by an American drone

Many people realize the real danger of armed "artificial intelligence", in connection with which communities are being created that demand control over the development and use of such weapons or their prohibition. To denote this subject, the term "lethal autonomous weapon systems (lethal AWS)" has been introduced, which refers not only to self-guided UAVs, but is more general.

International organizations, including the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, are participating in the discussion of this problem.

A few years ago, a community organization published a spooky sci-fi video featuring an episode from a possible near future. In it, hordes of miniature kamikaze drones "cleanse" the city of unwanted persons, targeting them using face recognition technology.

Today, your YouTube account may be closed for politically incorrect statements. And how do you like the prospect of being killed by an anonymous drone without trial and investigation by the decision of any state, business structure, or even some kind of algorithm?

Conclusion

In the 21st century, attack unmanned aerial vehicles are changing the face of warfare, giving a great advantage to the side that uses them more successfully.

Attack drones are increasingly being used by governments to illegally kill people in other countries. The continuation of this trend, the further development of unmanned weapons and the increase in their availability, including for non-governmental organizations, will move the world towards chaos in international relations and a decrease in people's sense of security.

Another threat is the danger that the ability to make decisions about killing people in the future may pass from person to computer. Over time, this process can get out of control of the person.