Category: UK Drones – Operations

UK MoD release presentations on Reaper and Watchkeeper drones to Drone Wars UK under FoI

Chris Cole

Last month the UK MoD’s Air Warfare Centre held a symposium on drones at the Shrivenham Defence Academy. While the overall theme of the symposium was how drones could help ‘UK Resilience Operations’, attendees were also given updates by senior military officials on the progress of the UK’s  major drone programmes: Reaper and Watchkeeper (see our story here from last month).  We applied to the MoD for copies of the presentations under Freedom of Information (FoI) Act and received them yesterday.   To view the presentations simply click on the images.

MoD presentation on Reaper - click to view

The briefing on the Reaper drone, entitled ‘RAF Reaper MALE RPAS  [‘Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Air System] capability/Lessons’ covers the armed capability of Reaper; the ‘Reaper Roadmap’ as well as lessons identified from operations.  Although the civil use of drones is refered to, there is little no information on this in presentation.

Slide eight of the presentation shows the ‘Reaper Roadmap.  The Reapers currently on operation and those planned to come into service in 2012/13 have an ‘out service date’ of 2015 and there is a three year gap before the planned new drone capability ‘Scavenger’ will be available in 2018.  This ‘gap’ is highlighted in the roadmap and may mean that additional Reapers will be procured.

Most interesting in the presentation are the nine slides covering ‘lessons identified’ covering operations, impact on personnel, safety, training and procurement.  While the presentation only gives the headlines with the detail no doubt covered in the accompanying talk by Wing Commander Gary Coleman, from the presentation we learn that:

  • From mid-2012 there will be 44 Reaper crews operating UK Reapers with three Reapers constantly flying 24/7
  • There have now been over 190 drone strikes in Afghanistan by British Reaper crews
  • Hellfire missiles are three times more likely to be uses than the 500lb bomb
  • If “lower yield weapons” had been available more strikes would have been undertaken
  • Reaper “mishaps” (i.e. crashes) happen approximately every 10,000 hours of flying
  • There are ‘Fatigue and Psychological stressors’ on personnel operating Reaper

The briefing on Watchkeeper  entitled ‘Watchkeeper and Land Forces Operational UAS’ is much more technical and focuses on how Watchkeeper will fit in with other smaller drones such as the Desert Hawk and T-Hawk.

MoD presentation on Watchkeeper - click to view

From the presentation it appears that the Watchkeeper in-service date has slipped again (or as the briefing  tactfully puts it, the ‘schedule re-programmed to meet current operational requirements’. Watchkeepers will now  be deployed to Afghanistan sometime during the first quarter of 2012.  While early flight testing of  Watchkeeper took place in Israel, there have now been 230 flight of Watchkeeper in the UK, with the longest test flight being 14 hours.

Afghan civilians killed in UK drone strike

Chris Cole

The tragic news that Afghan civilians have been killed in a British drone strike comes, unfortunately,  as little surprise.  I have been investigating the use of armed drones for the past three years and despite the mantra-like use of phrases such as “extreme precision” and  “surgical strike” by US and UK military spokespeople, equally monotonous are the regular reports of civilian casualties.

The death of these unnamed Afghans was revealed by an anonymous correspondent from the UK’s Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) at RAF Northwood  in reply to my information request in January 2011.  Answers to three other questions I had asked – about the 124 insurgents the David Cameron said had been killed by British Reaper drones – were refused as ‘PJHQ J9 POLOPS’ did “not consider that it would be in the public interest to release this information at this time”.

I spent two days last week meeting with human rights lawyers and activists at a conference organised by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, examining amongst other issues, the growth of targeted killing by US and British drones.  Speaker after speaker reiterated the serious legal questions raised in relation to human rights law and international humanitarian law by the use of armed drones, not least the need for proper accountability and oversight.  As Philip Alston the former UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing, wrote in the Guardian last year in respect of drone attacks “Accountability is an independent requirement of international law. When complete secrecy  prevails, it is negated.”

The secrecy surrounding  drone strikes is matched perhaps only by the silence of our politicians.  While there are clear and serious legal, ethical and moral concerns – some raised even by the MoD themselves – the number of armed drones in UK’s  arsenal is due to double within the next two years and the rush towards greater autonomy for drones proceeds apace.  All with little or no parliamentary or public debate.

The secrecy and lack of accountability surrounding the growing use of British armed drones is a matter of great concern.  It should not have taken such prolonged investigation by researchers and journalists to uncover the deaths of civilians in a British drones strike.  There needs to be a full and proper public debate on all the issues raised by the increasing use of armed unmanned drones by British forces.  We once again call for an end to the use of armed drones by British forces.

British drones over Afghanistan to be piloted from UK

Chris Cole

STOP PRESS

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced today that it is forming a second, RAF drones squadron to be based at RAF Waddington in Lincs.  RAF pilots will control the UKs armed Reaper drones that fly in Afghanistan from Waddington rather than as at present,  from US Air Force base Creech in Nevada.   The Reaper drones themselves will continue to be based in Afghanistan.

UK Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, says in the statement:

“Reaper aircraft are providing valuable support to our front-line troops in Afghanistan. We are committed to providing the best available equipment to our Armed Forces. The formation of this new Squadron follows our doubling of the Reaper capability to ten aircraft, which represents an increased investment of £135M. This extra Squadron will help us get the best out of this valuable armed reconnaissance aircraft.”

 More to follow.

UK Reapers notch up 20,000 flying hours

Chris Cole

The UK MoD have announced today that UK  Reaper drones have now notched up over 20,000 hours flying over Afghanistan since they were first deployed in October 2007. 

In the self-congratulatory announcement Air Vice-Marshal Phil Osborn makes the point that by flying over Afghanistan,  the Reaper drone  is “saving lives” and “making a real difference.”  He is, of course, lest there be any confusion, referring to the lives of British troops, not ordinary Afghans : 

“The real-time, day and night video coverage of the battle space, combined with the extensive use of onboard radar, provides a unique, cost effective and sustained capability that enhances the safety of troops on the ground. This cutting-edge remotely-piloted aircraft provides an impressive range of capabilities that are saving lives and making a real difference to the troops in Afghanistan.”

Not a word, of course, about the casualties of Britain’s drone wars, whether civilian or ‘militants’.  The only indication that there have been victims came from David Cameron’s boast to journalists in December that more than 124 insurgents had been killed in British drone attacks.  All questions about these 124 ‘insurgents’  – and whether there have been any other civilian casualties – have simply gone answered…..  

Meanwhile, the RAF’s Project Daedalus, to investigate if non-pilots could be trained to fly unmanned aerial systems as well as fully trained pilots has been ‘completed’.   According to the RAF, the programme

“has successfully demonstrated that selection and training can generate remote pilots who, despite undergoing a different sort of training, are as highly trained and equally skilled as traditional pilots in that field.”

This could have far-reaching implications given that both in the US and the UK current drone pilots are only drawn from those with previous fast-jet flying experience.    An interview, from April 2010, with those involved in the training can be read here.

Must mention, finally,  Steve Bell’s wonderful cartoon comment on David Cameron’s trip this week to Pakistan:

@Steve Bell

UK Drones Firing Thermobaric Weapons in Afghanistan?

Chris Cole

The UK MOD has this week refused to answer a parliamentary question on whether UK drones in Afghanistan are firing thermobaric weapons. 

Oxford East MP  Andrew Smith enquired whether any of the 84 ‘Hellfire AGM114’ missiles that Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox reported had been fired by British Reaper drones had been Hellfire AGM 114N’, the thermobaric version.   MoD Minister Andrew Robathan refused to answer saying that the information “would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of our armed forces”.

Thermobaric weapons, sometimes called ‘vacuum’ weapons have been condemned  human rights group and, as the Times reported in 2008 , “the weapons are so controversial that MoD weapons and legal experts spent 18 months debating whether British troops could use them without breaking international law.”  The ‘debate’ came to an end when a ‘Yes Minister’ solution was offered – they “redefined” the weapon as an ‘enhanced blast missile’.

The Guardian reported in May 2009 that he MoD had admitted that British Apache helicopters had fired 40  Hellfire 114N ‘enhanced blast weapons’ in Afghanistan so why is the MoD being so secretive about drones firing theses weapons?   

The BBC described thermobaric weapons in 2002,

“As the name implies, it works on a combination of heat and pressure applying lessons that have been widely learnt from coal mine explosions or other industrial accidents. These are often created by clouds of gas or fine particles erupting into flame.

The thermobaric weapon reproduces this situation to order, distributing a very fine cloud of explosive material throughout the target which is then ignited.  The heat and pressure effects are formidable – soldiers caught in the blast could have the air sucked from their bodies and even their internal organs catastrophically destroyed.

Thermobaric weapons are closely related to so-called fuel-air explosives – where the explosive cloud is provided by a volatile gas or liquid.”  

According to Globalsecurity.org the thermobaric version of Hellfire missiles was developed “to make the Hellfire more suitable for military operations in urban terrain. The number one requirement was that the new warhead increase the probability of personnel lethality or incapacitation.”

Noah Shachtman of Wired.com says  “It is among the most horrific weapons in any army’s collection: the thermobaric bomb, a fearsome explosive that sets fire to the air above its target, then sucks the oxygen out of anyone unfortunate enough to have lived through the initial blast.”

More details about development and use of thermobaric (sorry, ‘enhanced blast’) weapons can be found here. 

(With thanks to Jo)

Revealed: details of British drone attacks & plans to purchase more Reapers

Chris Cole
Answering Questions: Dr Liam Fox

Catching up on Hansard, have just noticed that last week Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox revealed new details  about British Drone attacks in Afghanistan in response to written question from SNP MP Angus Robertson:

26 Oct 2010 : Column 173W

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many missions the MQ-9 Reaper has flown in Afghanistan since May 2008; and how many of those missions involved the release of each type of weapon. [18015]

Dr Fox: The primary role of the UK Reaper Remotely Piloted Air System is Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. Since October 2007, it has flown 1,344 sorties and since May 2008 employed 36 laser guided bombs and 84 Hellfire missiles in support of UK and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

A couple of days later, in response to a question from former Labour Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth,  MoD Procurement Minister Peter Luff revealed that the UK plans to purchase five more Reaper drones from the US  (28 Oct 2010 : Column 421W)

Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) he expects to order in the Spending Review period; and by what date he expects such vehicles to be in service; [20259]

(2) how many new unmanned aerial vehicles he expects to order; and what timescale he has set for their entry into service. [20418]

Peter Luff: The Ministry of Defence has in recent weeks placed an order for a further 100 Mini Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) Desert Hawk III Air Vehicles to sustain the capability which has been supporting our troops in theatre since 2007. These are expected to be delivered in 2011-12. Additionally, we plan to order and receive up to five additional Reaper remotely piloted aircraft during the Spending Review period. Consideration of our requirement for future persistent armed surface surveillance is in its early stages. A remotely piloted system is one of the potential options to deliver this capability.

Maybe we are entering a new period of government openness on the use of drones – or perhaps its just a co-incidence that the release of information came in the same week… but it is curious…..