As debate rages in the U.S. over the morality and legality of drone use overseas, the United Kingdom is announcing its first armed drone attack targeted at Afghanistan from British soil, representing a new era in U.S-U.K. military strategy.
While the British Ministry of Defense has said it will not discuss the details of the incident, it did confirm that a Reaper drone controlled by a Royal Air Force Squadron in Lincolnshire fired a weapon “during a mission supporting U.K. forces on the ground in Afghanistan.”
The U.K. has long had control of drones, yet this marks the first air strike from an operator on U.K. soil, and sheds light on where the partnership between the U.S. and the U.K. is headed. The nation has launched more than 2,000 unmanned aerial drone operations between 2006 to 2012, according to U.K. Armed Forces Minister Andrew Robathan.
“We’re not flying any more operations than we were before, but with the time difference between the U.S., Afghanistan and the U.K., it is now possible for pilots at Waddington to work in relay with those in the U.S.,” a source told the Guardian in April.
Prior to the most recent strike, the Royal Air Force operated its five Reaper drones from a U.S. Air Force base in Nevada. Even then, the U.K. enjoyed a close drone relationship with the United States. Defense Minister Andrew Robathan indicated in April that British military personnel have been embedded with U.S. forces for drone missions for three years.
“There is a general expectation across defence, academia and industry that unmanned aircraft will become more prevalent, eventually taking over most or all of the tasks currently undertaken by manned systems,” a 2011 Ministry of Defense doctrine publication states. “This view is strongly reflected in current government policy.”
New drone era in U.K. sparks protests
In April, more than 600 protesters showed up outside the Lincolnshire air base to show their opposition. Marching through the streets, activists expressed opposition to drone strikes done in the name of their country.
It marked the first anti-drone protest in the U.K., according to Stop the War, an activist organization.
“There’s something morally repulsive about the idea that in Lincolnshire someone can press a button and kill in Afghanistan,” the organization’s spokesperson Ian Chamberlain told The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Protesters aren’t the only ones concerned about the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. in the American-led drone war. Conservative MP Rehman Chishti has been vocal, claiming that it will become increasingly difficult to separate the lime of accountability between the two allies in the case of civilian deaths.
“The problem with embedding British pilots with the Americans, for example, is that you can no longer determine responsibility,” Chishti told the Bureau for Investigative Journalism. “This muddies the waters completely, risks turning the people of Afghanistan against us, and creates a joint liability for both the U.K. and U.S. governments.”
That responsibility relates to the number of civilians killed by U.S.-sponsored drone strikes. Although difficult to track, a joint report by New York and Stanford University law schools put the number at 800 for innocent civilian deaths since 2004.
Outrage spilling over from U.S.
The drone controversy has been front and center in the U.S., largely sparked from a shocking May 2012 story published in the New York Times that revealed President Barack Obama’s “kill list,” highlighting the U.S.-led policy of carrying out drone attacks on foreign land.
For many Americans, it was the first time they heard about U.S. drone strikes.
While receiving little attention in the 2012 presidential elections, the issue made it to the forefront during the nomination process of CIA Director John Brennan. His nomination inspired protests throughout the nation, led by peace organization, Code Pink.
It also led to a recent near-record breaking filibuster on the Senate floor by Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who highlighted concern over the government’s foreign and domestic drone program.
Despite public outrage, there doesn’t seem to be any efforts by the U.S. government to pull back its involvement in the drone war. In January, the CIA indicated it would draft a “rules of force playbook” and hand the drone program over to the Pentagon.
The 2011 Ministry of Defense doctrine for the U.K. also sheds light on the future of drone use, highlighting it as the future of global warfare.
“Unmanned aircraft now hold a central role in modern warfare and there is a real possibility that, after many false starts and broken promises, a technological tipping point is approaching that may well deliver a genuine revolution in military affairs,” the doctrine states.