1. The Ethics of Drone Warfare
Jessica DeBold
“All war is deception”
Art of War, Sun Tzu

2. What is a drone?
Unmanned Ariel Vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Ariel System (UAS)
Autonomous? Remotely controlled
Used in both domestically and abroad
Ground robots
Reconnaissance, surveillance
Military advantage, keeps operators out of harms way

3. The Packbot “Eyes inside” Can move up to 14pmh
Wide angle camera displays
Environment resistance
Used in detection of improvised explosive devices, IED’s
Fault line – Robot Wars Aljazeera
Defenseupdate.com

4. MQ-1B Predator 27 ft long 55 ft wing-span Move up to 140 mph
Reach altitudes up to 25,000 ft
$20 million per unit
Autonomously execute the kill chain
Find, fix, target, engage, and asses
They perform Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks
They perform close air support, combat search and rescue, and precision strike missions
U.S Air Force

5. MQ-9 Reaper 36 ft long 66 ft wing-span Approximatley 4,000lbs
Can reach up to 50,000 ft
$53 million
Cruise speed is about 230 mph
Mainly used for attack and kill missions starting in October 2007
Autonomously execute the kill chain
Find, fix, target, engage, and asses
People & Power: Attack of the Drones - Aljazeera
U.S Air Force

6. Principle of Unnecessary Risk
“PUR”
Its is wrong to command someone to take on unnecessary potentially lethal risks
“If X gives Y an order to accomplish good goal G, then X has an obligation” Strawser
An action carried out for the greater good that has limited risks to the good agent is morally obligatory
Does not determine whether or not certain goals are goods worthy of being sought

7. Moral Disengagement “Cubicle warriors”
UAV operators will go home to dinner with their families after a day of surveillance and military operational attacks
Cognitive dissonance, or a clearer head?
“It’s like a video game. It can get a little bloodthirsty. But its fucking cool.” (Singer, Wired for War)
“Once fear for their own safety is not a pressing concern, one would assume the operator would be more capable, not less, of behaving justly.” (Strawser)

8. Obama and Drones
Mike Luckovich 2013

9. Obama and Drones
At least 239 covert drone strikes by “Cubicle Warriors” (Sharkey)
An increased demand for drones under the Obama Administration
This has led to other countries gaining possession of UAV’s as well
Israel, Iran
President Obama has used Drones six times more than former President George W. Bush
Mixed reports on deaths by drones

10. “The Reaper Presidency: Obama’s 300th Drone Strike in Pakistan” The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

11. Where can they go?
Department of Defense Report to Congress on Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training, Operations and Sustainability April 2012
Does the CIA have a right to assassinate alleged insurgents combatants without due process?- or is it a private matter of national security? (N. Sharkey)
“Currently, Department of Defense UAS operations conducted outside of Restricted, Warning, and Prohibited areas are authorized under a temporary Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) or waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)…”

12. “Know thy self, know thy enemy
“Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” - The Art of War, Sun Tzu

13. Who is a Civilian? Murphy's Law: Things go wrong
Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son were both American Citizens that were killed in Yemen (Swanson)
“This is a targeted effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists” – Barrack Obama addresses the nation
Murphy's Law:
Things go wrong

14. Who is a Civilian? (cont.)
Any male carrying a gun is fair game and not a civilian – but in some areas, all men carry guns.
Over 150 children killed in seven years of CIA drone strikes
Even if targeting was 100 percent accurate, how can we be sure that alleged insurgents are ‘guilty as charged’ (N. Sharkey)

15. Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia
The U.S. is not at war with Yemen, nor Pakistan and Somalia, but we’ve carried out a military attack on suspected Al Qaeda leaders in these nations since 2002
Three Americans were killed in Yemen by United States Drones in 2003, they were executed without fair trial or defense. (Pincus)

16. Yem
Tribesmen on the rubble of a building destroyed on Oct. 14, 2011, in an American drone strike against suspected militants in Shabwa Province in southeastern Yemen. – New York Times February 13th 2013

17. Bureau of Investigative Journalism

18. International Humanitarian Law
International Law
Jus ad bellum- The justification for a country’s declaration of war upon another
An attempt to uphold a notion of a “just war”
Human Rights- what kind of precedent are we setting for other countries to follow?
Impact outside of the United States and Outside of American Politics
The psychological effects of Living Under Drones- A project conducted by Stanford University and New York University

19. Domestic Drones Communication intercept technology Privacy concern
What type of information can be collected?
Where can they be operated legally?
If the air force can use them so can our police forces…
Avoiding a “surveillance society”
IED’s

20. What happens next? Increased demand for drones through 2017
Department of Defense Report to Congress on Future Unmanned Aircraft Systems Training, Operations and Sustainability April 2012:
“The Department of Defense (DoD) continues to increase its investment in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to meet battlefield commanders' demand for their unique capabilities. The emphasis on long-endurance, unmanned intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (lSR) assets - many with strike capabilities - is a direct reflection of recent operational experience and further Combatant Commander demands. This increase in demand has resulted in a large number of UAS capable of a wide range of missions.”

21. “Steady Growth for US Military UAV Inventory Through 2016”
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

22. IAW’s Independent Autonomous Weapon systems (IAWs)
Removes the human moral decision agent from the loop
Robots that make lethal decisions on their own
The predator drone programmed so as to make the particular decision to fire on the specific target of its own accord would become an IAWs
Morally impermissible

23. Works Cited
Anderson, Kenneth, and Matthew Waxman. "Law and Ethics for Robot Soldiers | Hoover Institution." Law and Ethics for Robot Soldiers. Hoover Institution Press Stanford University, Jan Web
"Living Under Drones." Living Under Drones Project. The Stanford International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic, The Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Lawn.Web. 07 Apr
Pincus, Walter. "Missle Strike Carried Out With Yemini Cooperation: Official Says Operation Authorized Under Bush Finding." Journal of Military Ethics (2003):. The Philosophers Index. Web.
Serle, Jack, and Chris Woods. "Covert Drone War." The Bureau of Investigative Journalism RSS. Ed. Christo Hird. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Apr Web. 07 Apr <
Strawser, Bradley Jay. "Moral Predatrs: The Duty to Employ Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles." Journal of Military Ethics 9.4 (2010): PrintSwanson, David. "Drones in U.S.
Flight Paths: What Could Go Wrong." American Humanist Association. American Humanist Association, Aug Web
 Sharkey, Noel. ”Saying 'No!' to Lethal Autonomous Targeting." Journal of Military Ethics 9.4 (2010): Print.
Singer, P.W. (2009) Wired for War. The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century (The New York Penguin Press)
 Washington., Robert F. Worth, Mark Mazzetti And Scott Shane; Robert F. Worth Reported From Sana, And Mark Mazzetti And Scott Shane From. "Hazards of Drone Strikes Face Rare Public Scrutiny." The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 Feb Web