Archive – Page 5 – Drone Wars UK

Website Makeover

21/01/2013Chris Cole

To celebrate our 200th post we have given the Drone Wars UK website a bit of a brush-up. Most obviously we have changed the appearance of the site, but there have also been some less obvious changes. Now all posts relating to a particular category can be seen on one page (for example see page about ‘British Reaper drones’ here). Our key categories are in the left hand column on the front page with the most recent post underneath each entry.

We have also added to the site a library of key documents and important articles. We hope this will be a key resource for researchers and campaigners and that the library will grow over the coming months and years. If you think we have missed a key document please do let us know Read more →

Review of the Year Part 3: Resisting the Drone

01/01/2013Chris Cole

While the use of drones has rapidly expanded over the past few year, this growth has been matched by rising resistance, opposition and protests. In this final review of the year we take a brief look at some of the opposition to the use of armed unmanned drones over the past twelve months. Read more →

Review of the Year Part 2: A Year of Drone Expansion and Proliferation

30/12/2012Chris Cole

A year of expansion was signalled in January when President Obama, flanked by an array of senior military officers, stood in front of the media at the Pentagon to announce a new US military plan. Entitled ‘Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense (pdf), the plan, aimed to shape the US military “in light of the changing geopolitical environment and our changing fiscal circumstances,” as Obama put it, was summed up by many as a future of ‘drones, special ops and cyber warfare’. As the document stated Read more →

Review of the Year Part 1: Drones and the Law

18/12/2012Chris Cole

Arguments relating to the legality of armed drones have raged since the very first Predator strike. However, over the past year, the legal arguments have emerged out of the pages of academic journals and obscure conference rooms and entered the mainstream and indeed, the courtroom. In the first of our reviews of the year we look back at what has happened in relation to legal arguments of the use of drones. Read more →

Drone Protestor Brian Terrell Heads to Jail

29/11/2012Chris Cole

Last month Catholic Worker and long-time peace activist Brian Terrell was sentenced to six months imprisonment for taking part in a protest against drone strikes at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Tomorrow (Fri 30th November) Brian reports to Federal Prison to serve his sentence. He expects to be released in May 2013. Here he shares some final thoughts: Read more →

Standing against the drones as new British drone squadron ‘stands up’

27/10/2012Chris Cole

A group of protesters gathered at the entrance to RAF Waddington yesterday (Oct 26th) to stand against the growing use of drones.

Inside the RAF were ceremonially ‘standing up’ 13 Squadron, its new drone unit. 13 Squadron has been reformed to operate an additional five new armed Reaper drones ordered in 2010 by David Cameron. RAF 39 Squadron will continue to operate RAF Reaper drones from Creech AFB in Nevada for the time being but eventually it is expected that all ten will be controlled from RAF Waddington. Read more →