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Former Marine Corps intelligence officer, Scott Ritter, explains at LewRockwell.com that the proliferation of drone technologies could change the face of war. He writes (abridged):
Drones used to be the exclusive purview of advanced military powers. Today, almost any military can afford cheap drones with high-quality sensors and lethal munitions, and, in doing so, change the course of any future conflict.
The proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, commonly referred to as drones) has brought about a sea-change in the way nations wage war today, ranging from the ability to gather intelligence in ways unthinkable using manned aircraft, to the discreet and precision employment of lethal weapons in a way which delivers a bigger bang for the buck when it comes to battlefield impact. While this technology is well known to the professionals who employ it daily, it remains a relatively obscure capability for the layperson, who often sees the term “drone” used without fully comprehending its implications.
As drones become cheaper and more capable, the future battlefield might be defined by the kind of swarm technology that usually has been the exclusive purview of fantastic light shows seen at the Olympics or over Mexico City in celebration of “the Day of the Dead.”
Instead of entertaining a potential enemy, however, such swarms, when using lethal suicide drones, can rapidly overwhelm a broad expanse of defenses, potentially altering the outcome on the battlefield in favor of the side employing this technology.
The face of war is changing, with drone technology no longer the exclusive purview of the major powers.
By Scott Ritter.
Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of ‘SCORPION KING: America’s Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump.’ He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector
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