Author Archives
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Revealed: internal discussions between MoD and regulators on flying Predator drones in UK
Details of discussions between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on plans to allow the RAF’s upgraded version of the US Predator drone to be flown within the UK have been released following a Freedom… Read More ›
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“Thinking war is bloodless is a mistake.” Talking drones and remote war with Air Marshall Bagwell.
Air Marshall Greg Bagwell is a recently retired senior Royal Air Force officer who served as Deputy Commander Operations at RAF Air Command. While being a vocal supporter of the use of armed drones, in his role of President of… Read More ›
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2018: British armed drone operations reach a crossroads
In December 2017 the RAF announced that British Reaper drones had reached the significant milestone of flying 100,000 hours of combat operations. First deployed in Afghanistan in 2007 and, on operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria since 2014, the… Read More ›
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Perpetual war: UK’s armed drones to stay deployed beyond campaign against ISIS
A Ministry of Defence press conference has revealed that as the war against ISIS ends, British Reaper drones are to stay deployed in the Middle East after other UK aircraft return home . As The Times reported ‘Air Commodore Johnny… Read More ›
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Drones, proliferation and the MTCR: US presents discussion paper
Over the past last couple of months there has been several reports in the defence and international press that the United States is looking to ‘renegotiate’ the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in order to allow it to increase the… Read More ›
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After ten years, time to ground Britain’s drones
The imminent defeat of ISIS in Iraq should see British drones grounded. But will they continue to launch strikes in what is becoming a perpetual war? This month (October 2017) marks ten years of British Reaper drone operations. Acquired on… Read More ›
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New MoD document on use of drones, same old spin
After a long delay the UK MoD has produced its new doctrine publication on the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (commonly known as drones). Its predecessor, ‘The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems’ (JDN 2/11), caused a stir in 2011… Read More ›
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Joint civil society statement on US-led armed drones control process
Regular readers of the Drone Wars blog will be aware that in 2016 a US State department initiative led to a political declaration endorsed by 53 states on the export and use of armed drones. However as we detailed at time,… Read More ›
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New FoI figures on UK air and drone strikes in Iraq and Syria
New figures released to Drone Wars UK in response to Freedom of Information requests shows a dramatic increase in the number of RAF operations in Syria in the first six months of 2017. According to the figures, UK armed air… Read More ›
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Information tribunal dismisses Drone Wars appeal over British drone secrecy
An information tribunal has upheld the MoD’s decision to refuse to release the number of British armed drones deployed against ISIS and their location, despite such information being released by the UK about its ‘manned’ aircraft. In the just released… Read More ›
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UK armed drone deployment: brief report from Information Tribunal
Our appeal against the Ministry of Defence’s decision not to release the number of UK Reapers engaged in operations against ISIS, nor the location of all UK Reapers was heard before an Information Tribunal yesterday (11 July). Despite such details… Read More ›
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Where are Britain’s armed drones? Why Drone Wars is going to court to seek answers
Drone Wars UK will be in court next week seeking to overturn the refusal of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to release how many of the UK’s fleet of ten armed Reaper drones are deployed and where they are located…. Read More ›
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“It was incessant.” Former RAF Reaper pilot speaks to Drone Wars
Drone Wars UK is publishing an exclusive interview with former British Reaper drone pilot Justin Thompson (a pseudonym), who for three years flew RAF Reapers over Afghanistan while based at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. When we met earlier… Read More ›
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Intelligence Committee Report on UK Drone Killing: Little Information. Few Answers. No Accountability.
Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has published its report into the intelligence basis of the UK’s 2015 drone targeted killing of Reyaad Khan in Syria in August 2015. The report has been heavily censored by the government before release… Read More ›
