By Jason Gan
As Technology has become more and more advanced we have been able to do things never able to be done at any other time in history, but these advancements in technology also mean more and more deadly and powerful weapons. As we have all seen there are guns, tanks, and explosives, but there are more advanced methods of fighting the enemy, what you may ask? By not fighting them at all, but while the main way of fighting another person would be to confront them person to person or weapon to weapon, times are changing and with times changing more and more advanced technology comes and it comes in different ways whether going from planes and tanks to drones and robots warfare is changing and how we fight others is changing as well.
Now you may be wondering how drones could help in a war? Enter the UAV, you may not know what a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is or what it could be used for, but they have many uses. The UAV has been used for years for reconnaissance, surveillance, and intelligence missions, but now they can serve many purposes such as electronic attacks, the suppression and destruction of enemy air defences, and drone strikes and can stay in the air for up to 45 hours depending on payload and able to move at hundred of miles per hour. The first use of the modern UAV was in 1915 by the British and they have been used for many purposes, even being used in the modern times for things like the pandemic to enforce social distancing and medical supply delivery, but even before the modern UAV they still existed in some way according to Consortiq.
There is also a sub category known as the UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles), the UCAVs come equipped with Missiles, countermeasures incase the UCAV is trying to be shot down, surveillance technology used for locating and destroying enemy targets in targeted strikes, and able to carry two 1000 pound munitions all while the pilot is at no risk of harm as they are remote controlled according to the Air University and even if they cost up to 15 Million it saves a life of pilots and keeps morale up as if a UCAV where to go down nobody would die compared to if a pilot in a plane goes and gets captured or killed, but there is a downside to these UCAVs as even if they are Remote controlled the weapons on the UCAV may cause collateral damage as well as civilian deaths as they are not as precise as Normal Infantry and may have a harder time differencing friend and foe as they of course are drones and not people even if there are humans controlling them and according to the UN during Operation Protective Edge undertaken by Israeli forces, 70% of the of the 2100 palestinians where civilians, although Israel only says 53% where civilians according to DigitalCommons.
While there are drones for the air there are also ground drones they are called the MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) made by QinetiQ, the MAARS is equipped with a rotating 360-degree turret M240B medium machine gun and fires 7.62 NATO as well as non-lethal options such as rubber projectiles, sponge bags, as well as tear gas or smoke and coming equipped with night, and day cameras, motion detectors, acoustic microphones, and loud speakers with sirens as well as a gunshot detector, making it able to detect the direction of a gunshot and fire back as well as in non-combat situations the weapons system being able to be replaced with a robotic arm that can lift up to 120 pounds while being able to move at 7mph and having the battery life to go 6-12 hours or up to one week on sleep mode as well as putting less soldiers at risk of combat situations as it can travel 800-1000 meters from its controller. As said by Lt. Col. Bard Graul “If one robot costs $300,000, but saves one Soldier’s life, then it's worth it” according to the US Army.
In the end drones have been a major help to the military and in war and although they may cost a lot in the end a human life is saved and with drones becoming more and more advanced they may be able to do much more and save even more allied lives, but yet at the same time they are a double bladed sword both saving allied lives, but also killing many lives, both civilian and enemy lives.
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